
Class. IS S-AIS. 
Book ,H gi? 
GcpigM^? 



COFXRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



- 'ft ! 






-: *' 



fnMwu> ii uu.,M,\,vk mmmgmmBBB 



' 






A i it 1*1— I 



•T^-o / _ £ 






- ■■;.. .'■ ' -.,. 




v&S&t^&tftttefr.rZ 



mm 







-.* !.«■«.»■ le.^.- ., ...^j.. -=-— - — ^ ipn hi nn 












IB? 



Wf%& 



THE WINDOW OP SELIM-SHISTI S MONUMENT. 
From a painting by V. Verestchagin. By permission of the American Art Association. 



[Copyright, 1888, by W. Kurtz.] 



.. 



I N DI K A 



THE COUNTRY AND THE PEOPLE 



OF 



INDIA AND CEYLON 



/ 



BY 



JOHN F. HLTKST, D.D., LL.D. 



WITH MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS 




SEP : 
/ 

INGT<! 



NEW YORK 
HARPER & BROTHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE 

1891 



*Ko % ! 



Copyright, 1891, by Harper & Brothers. 



•b 






All rights reserved. 



FOREWORD. 



The object of the following work is to describe India and 
Ceylon as they are to-day. But to make clear the existing 
condition of a country, and to account for it, the past must be 
constantly recognized. Therefore, at every stage of this work 
the historical antecedents have been summoned, and made to 
do duty as interpreters of the existing India and Ceylon. My 
plan of travel required a journey to nearly all the large places, 
and to many of the more obscure, throughout the empire. 
Landing in Bombay, and going across the peninsula to Madras, 
I proceeded to Ceylon, and went into the interior as far as 
Kandy, the ancient capital. On embarking from Colombo I 
landed in India again, this time near its southern extremity, 
and proceeded northwestward to Mysore. Thence I went to 
Madras, and there took passage up the Bay of Bengal to Cal- 
cutta. After a protracted stay in that place and its environs, 
I proceeded up the valley of the Ganges, with here and there 
such digressions as official duties permitted or required. The 
point where my itinerary brought me most closety to the Him- 
alaya Mountains was Naini Tal, where, one cloudless morning, 
from Mount Chena, I could see the magnificent panorama of 
snow-clad mountains which form the southern barrier of West- 
ern China. The limit of my tour in the northwest was Labor, 
whose minarets look down on the swift Ravi and out towards 
the valley of the Jhelam. This historic plain was the battle- 
field on which Alexander the Great won India, his last conquest, 
and opened its gates for the first time to the western world. 



v i FOREWORD. 

In the United States and Germany I had provided myself 
with helps for the study of the country and its romantic past. 
But in Bombay my apparatus was greatly enlarged, and it grew 
continually during my stay in India. I soon saw that if one de- 
sires to understand all that is involved in the Christianization of 
a land, he must make a special study of the country, its people, 
antiquities, dead faiths, industries, literature, habits, and political 
history. It was always a special privilege to meet representa- 
tives of the new thought and life of the empire. Every day 
brought with it something fresh, instructive, and attractive. 
When the hour came to leave the country, it seemed as if awak- 
ing out of a delightful dream. Not until, one February morn- 
ing, when I was actually on the deck of the Siam, and sailing out 
of the Bombay harbor, with the vessel pointing towards Aden, 
was the charm broken. There had been a certain subtle and un- 
disturbed joy which came from the environment. Nor could I 
know the depth and power of the Indian fascination until the 
ghats back of Bombay faded into the perfect sky and the eye 
could no longer see the beautiful islands in that matchless bay. 

Subjects which simply suggested themselves on the spot 
have, by later study, grown into large groups. The astounding 
advance of sentiment in favor of temperance; the spread of 
the opium trade, and England's responsibility for it ; the up- 
rising of the natives, not for another mutiny against their 
rulers, but for a representative government, in which the gov- 
erned may share ; the multiplication of missionary forces from 
Europe and America ; the steady elevation of the whole body 
of the Indian people by the extraordinary educational advan- 
tages which Macaulay was the hero to inaugurate ; the new and 
abundant literature bearing on India and its manifold life; 
and the constant trend of the Indian languages towards dis- 
use and oblivion, with the English as the sole speech of the 
future, are topics now of absorbing interest to readers in every 
part of the civilized world. 



FOREWORD. vii 

In the plan of the work the personal narrative has been every- 
where made subordinate to the general descriptive interest. It 
has been introduced largely for the purpose of throwing such 
light on the life of the people of India as might fall to the lot of 
a guest. Special topics have been treated in the centres which 
suggested them. For example; the Parsis could be studied to 
advantage only in Bombay, missions and education better in 
Calcutta and Serampore than elsewhere ; and the Mutiny better 
in Cawnpore and Lucknow than in places less central, and which 
had suffered less in that ordeal of blood. 

One of the most perplexing questions has been the correct 
spelling of the Indian proper names. Some, since the first 
draught of the work, have required a changed orthography. 
Other names were adopted at first, then abandoned, and finally 
both necessity and propriety required a return to the original 
spelling. The word Marhatta, for example, has needed to be 
changed several times, and was finally adopted in its present 
form — Marhatta — in compliance with the usage of those writers 
whose authority seems most weighty. The spelling of Macau- 
lay's day is now largely obsolete. The Hugh cannot any longer 
be written Hoogley. M. Le Bon suggests that the English 
themselves have taken little pains to arrive at unity in Indian 
orthography. There are no two Indian maps which adopt the 
same form for spelling the names of places. Even of cities 
through which the railway passes, one can find four different 
spellings — one on the railway map, another in the railway 
guide, a third in the station itself, and a fourth in the postal in- 
dication. While it is not very difficult to identify Cawnpore in 
Kanhpur, Amritsar in Umritsur, Ponclichery in Punduchery, and 
Conjeveram in Kanchipuram, it is not so easy to identify Tanjore 
in Tanjawur, Awadh in Oudh, Travancore in Tiruwankodu, and 
Mandir-Ray in Madras. Thornton's Gazetteer, one of the most 
important works on India, spells the one word Fath in eleven 
different fashions: — Futeh, Futh, Futtre, Futick, Futi, Futte, 



viii FOREWORD. 

Futteh, Futtih, Futtun, Futty. Even the colonels of regiments 
have sometimes been unable to identify the places on the itine- 
raries which the government had placed in their hands. In 
comparing the official map of the government of Madras there 
was often no resemblance between the names. On five different 
maps there were five spellings of one river — Tamrapavni, Tam- 
berperny, Tambaravari, Pambouri, and Chindinthura.* 

The present tendency of English writers on India is to ap- 
proach the Indian spelling. But to this there are exceptions. 
The pronunciation of Indian words has led to an English spell- 
ing. For example, a is often really u. Hence the custom arose 
of spelling Panjab as if written Punjab. The usage of Monier 
Williams and other recent scholars in writing Panjab has been 
adopted. The old spelling of Mahomet is now rapidly passing 
away. The latest of the reliable authorities spell it Muhammed, 
and the old Koran must now give place to the new Quran. 

Throughout the work I have been compelled to balance the 
orthography, and follow in the path of the safest of the recent 
guides. f In some instances the usual English method has been 
pursued. We are not quite far enough as yet to write Kanhpur 
for Cawnpore, Dihli for Delhi, and Lahknau for Lucknow. The 



* Le Bon, "Civilisation cle Uncle" (Paris, 1887), p. 477. 
f Carter, in his "History of India," published at the Cambridge (England) 
University Press, takes Hunter as his guide, and says: "Indian names are 
spelled according to the Imperial Gazetteer of India, edited by Sir W. W. 
Hunter, which represents the system adopted by the authority of the Indian 
government in 1870. A few names which have acquired popular currency are 
left unaltered 

"The vowel sounds are represented and sounded thus: 
a as in rural and for. 
e as in grey. 
i as in fill and (\eer. 
o as in bone. 
u as in bwll and rwde. 
ai as in lyre. 
"The consonants are to be sounded as in English, except g, ch, s, t, which 
are sounded only as the corresponding letters in give, church, solstice, tin." 



FOREWORD. ix 

diacritical points which are commonly employed to distinguish 
the long from the short sound of the vowels have, in most cases, 
been omitted. 

. For all statistical information my chief reliance has been the 
full tabular reports issued at Calcutta by the departments of 
the Indian government. For important suggestions while this 
work was in manuscript, and for special help during its passage 
through the press, I am indebted to Bishop James M. Thoburn, 
of Calcutta ; the Rev. Thomas S. Smith, of Jaffna, Ceylon ; the 
Rev. B. H. Baclley, D.D., of Lucknovv ; the Rev. Thomas J. 
Scott, of Bareilly ; the Rev. George H. JVIcGrew, D.D., of 
New York, and the Rev. Albert Osborn, B.D., of Buffalo, New 
York. 

The title of the work — Indika — I derive from the Greek Me- 
gasthenes, the first writer to reveal the inner life of India to the 
western world. After the conquest of India by Alexander the 
Great, Seleucos Nicator, the founder of the Syrian monarchy, 
became possessor of India. His hold, however, was very slight, 
for, while he was consolidating Syria, Chandra Gupta was arous- 
ing India and throwing off the despised Greek domination. In- 
stead of a new warfare, there was a compromise between these 
two rulers. It was a clear case of barter. Chandra Gupta gave 
Seleucos five hundred elephants as a present, while Seleucos gave 
the great Indian chief his daughter in marriage. Seleucos sent, 
as his ambassador to the Indian court at Patna, the learned 
Megasthenes. The Greek scholar remained there many years, 
and travelled extensively, and had all the skill in acquiring in- 
formation which Herodotus possessed in gaining knowledge 
from the Egyptian priests during his leisurely tours along the 
Nile. Megasthenes, on returning to Greece, wrote his book 
'IvSt/cd (Indian Things), which was an account of his travels and 
observations in far-off India. This valuable work, which con- 
tained minute information concerning the land conquered bv 
Alexander, is lost, but such important fragments of it have 



x FOREWORD. 

been preserved by Strabo, Arrian, and ^Elian as to give a cer- 
tain completeness to many of its topics. 

While Indika is not written in any prevailing interest, it 
may be said that the publishers have been so kind as to suggest 
the largest liberty in the treatment of missions. It is hoped 
that the result will be not only of some aid towards a general 
knowledge of India and Ceylon, but of such service in making 
better known the magnitude of the intellectual and spiritual 
needs of the millions of the people as to awake the largest 
sympathy of all Protestant people, and to aid somewhat in at- 
tracting to the Aryan cradle of our Anglo-Saxon race a hun- 
dred missionary, medical, and educational laborers where to-day 
there is but one. 

Washington, D. C, February 9, 1891. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER PAGE 

I. The Theee Seas to India ......... 1 

II. Arrival in Bombay 10 

III. Bombay. — Touches of its History 15 

IY. The First Europeans in India 23 

Y. The Anglo - Saxon in India. — Historical Antece- 
dents 31 

YI. India in History 35 

I. The Original Inhabitants. — II. The Great Invasions. 
— III. The Great Aryan Invasion and Conquest. — IV. 
The Brahman Supremacy. — V. The Buddhist (Relig- 
ious) Supremacy (b.c. 543-a.d. 1000). — VI. The Greek 
(Political) Supremacy in India (b.c. 327-161). — VII. The 
Scythian Invasion (b.c. 100-a.d. 500). — VIII. The Hindu 
Supremacy (a.d. 500-977). — IX. The Afghan or Moham- 
medan Dynasties in India (a.d. 996-1526). — X. The 
Mogul Emperors (a.d. 1524-1857). — XL The Marhattas 
(a.d. 1650-1818).— XII. The Europeans in India 

YII. The Natural Divisions of India 81 

YIII. Animal and Yegetable Life. — Minerals .... 92 

IX. The Government of India 105 

X. The Feudal States 113 

XL The Wild Tribes of India 122 

XII. Railroads. — Canals. — Telegraphs. — Postal Sys- 
tem • . . 127 

XIII. The Parsis of India ■ . . 134 

X.IY. A Sail to the Cave-Temples of Elephanta . . .153 



x ii TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER PAGE 

XV. The Cave-Temple of Karli ; . 162 

XYI. Puna, the Marhatta Capital ...... 173 

XVII. The Nizam's Haidarabad. — A Native City . 178 

XVIII. Golconda. — An Elephant Eide 183 

XIX. The Fort and Tombs of Golconda .... 192 

XX. Ways of Indian Travel 203 

XXI. Madras. — Past and Present 216 

XXII. My Madrasi Home 224 

XXIII. Coals to an Indian Newcastle 231 

XXIV. Ceylon.— Colombo by the Sea 244 

XXV. The Enchanted Road to Kandy 255 

XXVI. Kandy and its Wonders 264 

XXVII. The Pearl Fishery. — Madura and its Temple 273 
XXVIII. The Temple Fortress of Trichinopoli . . . 286 

XXIX. The Srirangam Temple 294 

XXX. A Run into Mysore . . ' 300 

XXXI. The Syrian Christians in India 309 

XXXII. Voyage from Madras to Calcutta . . . .313 

XXXIII. Lord Dufferin in Calcutta 321 

XXXIV. Pictures of Calcutta 326 

XXXV. Fort William and the Black Hole . . . 336 

XXXVI. A Rajah's Home. — The Botanic Gardens . 338 

XXXVII. Polyglot India 343 

XXXVIII. The Battle of the English with the Indian 

Languages . 347 

XXXIX. Humors of the Indian Languages . . . .353 

XL. The Agonies of English Style 356 

XLI. Education 367 

XLII. The Higher Indian Schools 376 

XLIII. The Universities of India - 380 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. xiii 

CHAPTER PAGE 

XLIV. After the College — What? ....... 385 

XLV. English Writers in India . 390 

XLVI. The Religions of India 409 

I. Brahmanism. — II. Buddhism (b.c. 543-a.d. 1000). — 
III. Hinduism. — IV. Jainism. — V. Mohammedanism. — 
VI. The Sikhs. — VII. The Religions op the Hill 
Tribes. 

XLVIL Protestant Missions in India ....... 432 

XLVIII. The Roman Catholic Church in India . . . 445 

XLIX. An Indo- American Romance 451 

L. Countess Dufferin Fund for Female Medical 

Aid 454 

LI. The Cradle of Missions in North India . . . 463 

LII. A. Walk Through Old Serampore 466 

LIII. The Sceptical Invasion of India 472 

LIV. The Somajes of India 477 

I. The Adi Brahmo Somaj. — II. The Brahmo Somaj 
of India. — III. The Sadharan Brahmo Somaj. — IV. 
The Arya Somaj. 

LY. Religious Significance of the Reformatory 

Movements 495 

LVI. The Opium Curse in India 505 

LVIL Apka Sharab — Your Honor's Fire-Water . . 516 

LVIIL Famines of India 537 

LIX. The Indian Industries 540 

LX. Poverty of India 548 

LXI. Benares the Holy City. — Morning Scene 

Along the Ganges 559 

LXII. A Ride Through Benares 569 

LXIII. A Halt at Allahabad 574 

LXIY. Christmas in Cawnpore. — Christian Workers . 579 

LXY. Reminders of the Massacre in Cawnpore . . 585 

LXYI. Lucknow — The Heart of the Mutiny .... 592 



x i v TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER PAGE 

LXVIL Memorials of the Mutiny . „ . . . . .597 

LX VIII. A Native Publishing-House 604 

LXIX. The Current Literature of India .... 612 

LXX. Christian Literature in India 619 

LXXI. Agra and the Taj Mahal 622 

LXXII. Delhi, the Mogul Metropolis 635 

LXXIII. The Elder Delhi . .612 

LXXIY. The Jama Masjid. — Delhi in the Mutiny . . 652 

LXXV. A Tour into the Panjab 658 

LXXYI. Lahor— The Panjab Capital 664 

LXXVII. The Golden Temple of Amritsar 670 

LXXVIII. The Mohammedan College at Aligarh . . 678 

LXXIX. The Ruins of Fathpur Sikri 684 

LXXX. The Palaces of Gwalior 690 

LXXXI. The Temples of Gwalior ........ 701 

LXXXII. Jaipur—A Rajput Capital . '. . . . . .710 

LXXXIIL A Day in Ajmir 721 

LXXXIV. Ahmadabad 728 

LXXXY. Bassein — A Dead Portuguese City .... 739 
LXXXVI. What has England Done for India? . . . 755 

Appendix 767 

I. Principal Dates of Indian History 769 

II. Area and Population op the Provinces, Exclu- 
sive op the 153 Native States ..... 772 

III. Principal Independent Native States .... 774 

IV. Number of Candidates at University Examina- 

tions, and the Number Passed, in Each 

Year since 1857 775 

V. Distribution of Applicants for University De- 
grees AMONG THE RELIGIOUS FAITHS OF INDIA. 777 

VI. Receipts in India from Excise Duty on Spirits. 779 
VII. Official Census of the Trades and Occupations 

of the People of India 780 

VIII. Books and Periodicals Published in India during 

the Year 1886 782 

Index 785 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



The Window of Selim - Shisti's 

Monument Frontispiece 

Kantarah, on the Suez Canal 3 

View of Aden 8 

Situation of Bombay on the Gulf. . 9 
Great Indian Peninsular Railway, 
Victoria Terminus and Adminis- 
trative Offices, Bombay 11 

Lakshmi, "Our Lady of Bombay" 15 

The Native Quarter, Bombay 21 

A Street in Bombay 25 

Carpet-weaving 29 

Silk-and-gold Embroidery on Silk, 

Persian . . . 30 

Overlooking- the City of Bombay. . 31 
The "Lakshmidas Khimji Kapad 
Bazar," a Cloth Market in Bom- 
bay 33 

Primitive Silver Jewellery of Dinaj- 

pur, Bengal 34 

Lord Clive 35 

The Duke of Wellington 37 

Brahma 40 

Silver Coin of Alexander 1 43 

Lota (drinking -vessel), old brass, 

Hindu 46 

Hindu Carving — Bloodthirsty God 

Bhairub. 49 



Tamerlane 50 

Tomb of the Emperor Akbar at 

Agra 55 

Hindu Goldsmith 57 

View of the Taj Mahal from the 

Garden 59 

Robber Chief, Kachar 61 

An Outcast Hindu, Berar 62 

Warren Hastings 71 

Fisherman, Sunni Mussulman, Sind 72 

Statue of Sir James Outram 75 

The Residency at Lucknow 77 

The Memorial Well at Cawnpore. . 79 

Marco Polo 80 

Sopor, the Himalayas in the back- 
ground 81 

Kottiar, Ceylon 83 

The Last Voyage. A Souvenir of 
the Ganges. (From the Painting 

by Edwin Lord Weeks.) 87 

A Salt-well, Kutch 91 

Natives Felling Timber 93 

Sleeping Tiger. (From the Paint- 
ing by Barye.) 95 

Lion and Boa-constrictor. (From 
the Water-color by Antoine Louis 

Barye.) 99 

Panther Devouring a Gazelle. 



XVI 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



(From the Bronze by Antoine 

Louis Barye.) 102 

Ganga Sagar (water-vessel), brass, 

Jhelam 104 

Earl Lytton 105 

Lord Lansdowne 107 

BeDgal Lancers 109 

Water - vessel, copper - tinned, old 

Kashmir ware 112. 

Narayan Hitti, the Palace of the 
Maharajah, and Raj Guru's Tem- 
ple 113 

Entrance Gate to the Maharajah's 

Palace, Indore 114 

Reigning King, in Court Dress. 

Nepal 115 

Royal Palace, Bhatgaon 117 

A Native Princess and her Suite. 

Nepal 119 

Musical Instrument used in Demon 

Worship 121 

Veddah 124 

The Dasera, or Annual Sacrificial 
Festival of the Gurkha Regi- 
ments in India 125 

A Bridge of Shops, Srinagar (Kash- 
mir) 127 

"The Ocean of Milk" Waterfall 
and the Railway Viaduct, on the 
West-of-India Portuguese Rail- 
way 129 

Barabuira Lock, on the Kendrapara 

Canal 130 

Crossing a Stream 131 

A Much-addressed Missive 132 

A Puzzling Postal-card 133 

Brass Ornamental Chains, Modern 
Gujerat 136 



A Parsi of Bombay. 139 

A Parsi Child 147 

Parsi Towers of Silence 149 

Entrance to the Caves of Elephanta 153 

The Caves of Elephanta 155 

Vishnu , 157 

A Chapel in the Great Caves of 

Elephanta 158 

Siva, the Destroyer 159 

Lota (drinking-vessel), silver incrus- 
tation on copper, Tanjor 161 

Interior of Temple hewn from the 

Rock 163 

The Kailas — Cave-temples of Ellora 165 
Vestibule of the Great Cave-temple 

at Ellora 169 

Buddhist Support from the Ganesa 

Grotto near Cuttack 172 

Slicing Lemons 173 

AReview of Native Infantry atPuna 175 

Acrobat on Horseback 177 

Officer of the Nizam's Guards, 

Haidarabad 178 

The Residency at Haidarabad 179 

Street View and Char Minar, Hai- 
darabad 181 

The Nizam's State Coach, Haidara- 
bad 182 

Mir Alam Lake 190 

A Narrow Escape 193 

Swimming-drill of Elephants 197 

Elephants on the March. 199 

Necklace, enamel on silver, semi- 
barbaric hill work, from Kangra, 

Panjab 202 

Track-laying near Bhopal 203 

Kottiar Canoes Passing around Isl- 
and 205 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



XVll 



Rattan Bridge across the Teesta, five 

thousand feet above sea-level .... 207 
A Pair of Bullocks used for Car- 
riages 211 

An Unexpected Danger — an Engi- 
neer's Predicament in India 213 

Cross-country Travelling in India. 215 

Hindu Barber, Madras 217 

Tamil Girl 219 

A Hindu Young Kuli Woman, Ma- 
dras 221 

Table or Stool, in coarse old sil- 
ver 223 

Little Innocents Abroad 225 

A Striking Spectacle — Illumination 

of the Surf 229 

West Gate of the Vishnu Temple, 

Con jeveram, near Madras 237 

Surahi (water- vessel), modern Kash- 
mir ware, copper- tinned 243 

A Catamaran 245 

A Street in Colombo 247 

Hindu Temple, Colombo 251 

Along the Shore, Ceylon 253 

Wild Hog of India 254 

The Giant India-rubber Trees out- 
side the Peradinia Gardens 257 

The Great Banyan-tree, on the road 
from Colombo to Mount Lavinia 

Hotel 261 

Singhalese Waiter 263 

The Giant Bamboos in the Pera- 
dinia Gardens, near Kandy 265 

Tea-pickers in Ceylon 267 

Coffee-plant and Blossoms 269 

Entrance to Buddhist Temple, 

Kandy 271 

Tooth of Buddha, at Kandy 272 



Temple and Royal Sepulchre, Ma- 
dura 277 

Detail of a Pillar of the Hall called 

Puthu Muntapam, Madura 281 

Saraswati 285 

Temple-castle, Trichinopoli 289 

Aftaba (water-vessel), Siyah Kalam- 

kari, Moradabad 299 

A Brahman of Mysore 300 

Elephant-catching in Mysore, in a 
Keddah constructed by order of 
the Maharajah, in honor of the 
visit of Prince Albert Victor. . . . 301 

Rolling Tea 303 

Drying Tea 305 

Despatching Tea by Cart to the 

Railroad 307 

Sandstone Doorway, Multan 311 

Black Pagoda, Kanarak 314 

Ladies' Croquet Match on the Prom- 
enade Deck 315 

Monoliths at Kanarak 317 

Deck Game on P. and O. Steamer.. 319 
Silver Filigree Jewellery at Cut- 
tack 320 

The Governor - General's Levee, 
Government House, Calcutta. . . 321 

General Post-office, Calcutta 323 

Aftaba (water- vessel), copper- tinned, 

from Peshawur 325 

High Court, and Statue of Sir Cav- 
endish Bentinck, Calcutta 327 

East Gate, Government House, Cal- 
cutta 329 

Bird-house 331 

The Maidan, or Esplanade of Cal- 
cutta 333 

A Native Bungalow, Calcutta 335 



XV111 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Boats at Low Tide on the Hugli 

River 337 

Spinning 339 

A Serpent-charmer 341 

A Palanquin 346 

On a River Steamer 349 

Going Home from the Ball 357 

Western Entrance of Fort George, 

Madras 366 

Mayo College, Ajmir 369 

Daly College, Indore 373 

The Cathedral School, Bombay. . . 377 
Sacrificial Spoon, old brass, Hindu . 379 

The University of Bombay 381 

Sir Philip Francis 393 

J.Z. Holwell 396 

Residence of Macaulay 401 

Birthplace of Thackeray 403 

Rudyard Kipling 408 

Lama Priestess, Northern India. . . 409 
Burning Pile of the late Maharajah 

Tukaji Rao Holkar, Indore 411 

Temple of Jaganath, and Bazar. . . 415 
The Temple Yard, Conjeveram. . . 419 
Car, sixty feet high, used for the 

Brahma Festival, Conjeveram. 

(Drawn by three thousand men.). . 423 

Narendra Tank, Puri 427 

Principal Grotto of Kanheri 429 

Sacrificial Spoon, old brass, Hindu . 431 
Cremation - ground and Sacred 

Shrines of Pashupati 433 

A Kuli Woman, Calcutta 439 

Shrine and Tombs of Swambhunath 443 

Sectarial Marks 447 

Cotton Mather 453 

Portrait and Autograph of Lady 

Dufferin 455 



The Walter Hospital built by H.H. 
the Maharajah of Udaipur, Raj- 

putana '. 456 

Hospital and Dispensary built by 
H. H. the Maharajah of Dar- 

bhunga 458 

The Dufferin Hospital, Nagpur, 
built by the Central Province 

Branch 460 

Baptism at Native Chapel, Seram- 
pore — the first Native Church in 

North India 463 

Silk-floss Embroidery on Cloth. . . . 465 

The College at Serampore ' 467 

The Tomb of Dr. Carey 469 

Bird-of -paradise 471 

A Hindu Mendicant Pilgrim 475 

Keshub Chunder Sen 481 

Water- vessel, Kashmir ware 494 

A Somaj Notice — Fac- simile of 
Keshub Chunder Sen's Hand- 
writing 499 

The Poppy Plant 506 

The Poppy Capsule after the petals 
have fallen and incisions have 

been made 510 

Instrument used for making incis- 
ions in the capsules of the Poppy 515 

Climbing the Toddy-palm 520 

Black Town, Calcutta 536 

A Hard Swim for It 537 

Inundation of the Indus 539 

Wood-carvers at Work 540 

Ancient Specimen of Wood-carving 541 

Gold-brocade Weavers 543 

Necklace, Panjab 545 

The Superb Bird-of -paradise 547 

Women Weaving. 549 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



xix 



Carving on the Buddhist Tower of 

Sarnath 556 

Agricultural Show at Wadhwan, 

Kathiawar 557 

Ghats 561 

Elevation of Temple of Vishwesh- 

war at Benares 565 

A Window in Benares 567 

Scrambling for Peas 570 

Buddhist Tower at Sarnath, near 

Benares 573 

The Magh Mela, or Annual Fair, 

at Allahabad 575 

Kopt Shield, modern, Panjab .... 578 
Gathering Christmas Decorations. . 580 

The Successful Robber 582 

General Havelock 587 

Execution of the Sepoys. . . 589 

The Imambara at Lucknow 593 

The Martiniere 595 

Buddhist Column from the Naha- 

pana Grotto at Nassick 596 

An Indian Artist 607 

A Moslem School 613 

Palace in Agra 623 

Gateway of Garden, Taj Mahal 627 

The Pearl Mosque 633 

Governor's Residence, Fort George, 

Madras 634 

Mussulman Water-carrier, Delhi. . . 641 

A Study of Relative Values 643 

Section of Kutab Minar, Delhi. . . . 645 
Trees in the Court -yard of the 

Mosque 649 

A Tomb in Old Delhi 651 

Jama Masjid, or Great Mosque. . . . 653 

The Tiger in his Lair 659 

Baiting the Tiger 661 



Bringing Home the Game 

Open-air Restaurant, Lahor 

Hindu Potter, Labor 

The Golden Temple of Amritsar. . 

Beaten Work in Copper for the 
Golden Temple, Amritsar 

Silver Neck Ornament, Sind 

Chief Mosque of Fathpur Sikri. 
(From Verestchagin.) 

House of Babul, in Fathpur Sikri. 
(From Verestchagiu.) 

The Phul-Bagh, Gwalior 

Facade of the Palace of Pal, Gwalior 

A Pilgrim Carrying Religious Relics 

Colossi of the Owrwha'i, Group of 
Adinath, Gwalior 

King Bird-of-paradise 

A Wedding Procession 

Details of Ornamentation of Temple 
of Khandaria, Khwajrao, south 
of Pauna, in Bundelkhand 

A Rajput Hindu, from Marwar 

The Palace of the Seths, Ajmir 

Rani Sipri Mosque, Ahmadabad . . . 

Detail of Rani Sipri Mosque, Ah- 
madabad 

Balcony in Ahmadabad 

Perforated Window, copied in teak 
from the window in yellow sand- 
stone in the Sidi S'aid Mosque, 
Ahmadabad 

Carving on the Buddhist Tower, 
Sarnath 

The Citadel Gate 

Cathedral of St. Joseph 

Church of the Franciscans 

Monastery of the Jesuits 

Facade of a Grotto of Kanheri. . . . 



663 
665 
669 
673 

676 
677 

685 

689 
691 
695 
700 

703 
709 
711 



715 
718 
723 
729 

733 

737 



735 

736 

741 
745 
749 
751 

754 



LIST OF MAPS. 



India and Ceylon In front cover. 

Distribution of Forest Trees Facing p. 92 

Languages of India " 343 

Missions in India " 441 

Famines in India • " 538 

Comparative Table of Crops in India " 548 



INDIKA. 

CHAPTER I. 

THE THREE SEAS TO INDIA. 

My path from Europe to India lay through Vienna and the 
rich wheatfields of the Hungarian plains. At Belgrade the rail- 
road was left behind. The passage by steamer down the Dan- 
ube is one of the most interesting experiences through which one 
passes in Eastern Europe, while the rapid gliding through the 
Iron Gates leaves nothing to be desired in the way of picturesque 
scenery and historical associations. After a halt at Sistov and 
Rustchuk, and a detour to Bucharest, the capital of Roumania, 
Filippo took me in charge for a drive of three days across Bul- 
garia. His wagon was not the best, while his horses were not 
equal to the climb up the Balkan heights. "We accordingly took 
buffaloes. They proceeded at slow rate, but finally brought us 
to the top of the Shipka Pass. Here we took our horses again, 
and proceeded rapidly down through the rose-gardens of Kasan- 
lik into the romantic plains of Thrace. At Philippopolis I again 
found a railroad, and proceeded to Constantinople. 

A week's rest on the western bank of the Bosphorus, at the 
home of the Rev. Dr. A. L. Long, proved a good preparation for 
th'e'Voyage to India. The doctor accompanied me on a journey 
to Troy. On returning to the Dardanelles, I found myself com- 
pelled to pay the severe penalty for our luxury of two clays' 
wandering over the Troad by being obliged to take a wretched 
Russian steamer, The Tsar, for Alexandria. 

Alexandria was in process of rebuilding after the great fire 
1 



2 INDIRA. 

and devastation in the unsuccessful war waged against the Eng- 
lish by Arabi Pasha, whom I saw later in exile on the island of 
Ceylon. The dust in Alexandria was flying in all directions. 
Building materials blocked up many of the streets. I was deter- 
mined to see the city well, and get over the impression of a former 
visit, in 1871, that there is next to nothing to see in this renowned 
place. . But the second visit was as unremunerative as the first. 
The traveller should make haste to see Pompey's Pillar, climb a 
knoll, or get out on a house-top, and see the matchless Mediter- 
ranean and the wonderful curve of the coast-line, and then take 
his leave for Cairo. Many a city has risen and fallen here, but 
the traces are few and faint. Alexandria is only a memory. 
Kingsley's " Hypatia " and Shakespeare's " Antony and Cleo- 
patra " help one to bring back its past. The Mediterranean Sea 
is now the only fresh and beautiful thing for all eyes to rest on. 
The Alexandrian obelisks and other treasures, so far as they have 
not been ground into shapeless fragments by the mills of time and 
war, have gone into foreign hands, to enrich the antiquarian col- 
lections of Europe and America. 

In Cairo one has a different feeling. He is sure to be re- 
warded. Its interior location has preserved it from the assaults 
of navies. It is both new and old. There is, on every hand, 
enough of the old past to keep fresh the picture of former great- 
ness. Bits of antiquity greet you at frequent intervals. Then, on 
all the drives, the Pyramid of Cheops stands out in full view, from 
its place on the plains, in all the calm dignity and majesty of an 
immortal queen. Shepard's Hotel, in October, 1884, was a busy 
place. It was the general rendezvous for British officers, high 
and low, who were about to ascend the Nile to Khartoum, for 
the campaign against the Mahdi for the rescue of General Gor- 
don. Lord Wolseley had charge of the British army. Every 
move was a blunder. Gordon was killed. The expedition failed, 
and it was a piece of the best fortune that the larger part of the 
British army escaped with their lives. After Gordon's death, his 
Bible was found and brought back to England, and given to his 
sister. Its worn appearance tells the story of its faithful use by 
Gordon during his stay and dreadful siege at Khartoum. The 
sister, much as she prized it, presented it to the Queen. It was 
gratefully accepted by her, who, not willing to bury it among 
her literary treasures in the library of Windsor Castle, had a 



THE THREE SEAS TO INDIA. 3 

special cabinet prepared for it, where it now rests alone in the 
corridor of the Castle, and where any visitor can see its well- 
worn pages. 

The starting of the train from Cairo for Suez brought me face 
to face with my long Indian tour. In twent}^-four hours I was 
to take the steamer. Suez was reached at nine in the evening. 
An accident delayed the train an hour. Judging from the vol- 
ume of hot water falling on the track, and the great escape of 
steam, and the fright of. the throng of jabbering Arabs on the 
engine, there was a near approach to an explosion of the boiler. 
How do the Egyptians put out a locomotive fire on one of their 




KANTARAH, ON THE SUEZ CANAL. 



trains ? Easily enough. They go out into the desert, which is 
only four feet off, and fill their shallow palm-baskets with sand, 
and pour that on the fire. The smothering is instantaneous. 
When the fire was out, and I began to resign myself to staying- 
all night out in the desert, a freight-train whistled in the dis- 
tance, in the rear of our train. It was a pure accident that help 
was near. The freight-cars came quietly up, put their locomo- 
tive to our train, and pushed us into Ismailia. After a ride of 
two and a half hours farther we reached Suez. 

The servant who took me in charge at the Suez hotel was a 



4 INDIRA. 

pure Arab. He had as beautiful, pearl-like teeth as ever shone 
between two lips ; a round face ; eyes dark and soft ; and he spoke 
a "leedle Eengles." He represents a large class of Egyptian 
natives whom England is bringing up out of the sands, and to 
whom she is giving a future, though humble at the start. The 
agent of the Peninsular and Oriental Line, to which the Sutlej 
belongs, met me after breakfast, and told me to be ready in ten 
minutes to go out in his steam-launch, as my steamer for India 
had arrived, and was making round the southern end of the 
canal. I packed up in a hurry, and was soon at the quay. Our 
little cockleshell, which steered coquettishly between a mass of 
sailboats, took me to the gangway of the steamer, laden with 
one hundred and fifty saloon passengers, who had come all the 
way from England, and would only step ashore in Bombay. 

My first and chief concern was to know where my berth was 
to be. The purser showed me two berths, one of which was half 
covered by the swinging berth of another man over it, and at 
right angles to it, and the other was in a darker place in another 
room. Nothing else, I was gravely informed, was to be had. 
Each room had three other men in it. I walked the deck, medi- 
tating on the thermometer, now about 90° Fahrenheit, and soon 
to go to the hundreds in the white silence and perfect calm of 
the Red Sea. I learned that the ship's carpenter would part 
with his little room, and sleep somewhere else, for a considera- 
tion. On examining it, I found it to be greasy, narrow, in a 
noisy place, and with the hideous ash-pipe from the engine near 
by. But I was compelled to engage it. I sought the steward, 
and asked him if he was equal to the task of cleaning it. 

" I am your man, sir. My name is Light. I'll put it straight.'' 

He did what he said. He cleaned out every nook and corner, 
save only the cockroaches. The little room was about seven feet 
square. There was just space enough to turn around and take 
two steps. My steward, Light, stretched a canvas frame straight 
out of my porthole, and stood it at right angles to the ship. 
Later, when gliding farther southward, between Mecca on one 
side of us and Berber on the other, and the sea a glassy, steamy 
caldron, I was thankful to Light for having provided me with 
the friendly little windsail. 

The Sutlej glided out of the harbor of Suez at midnight. The 
water was as smooth as molten glass. On the west, and stand- 



THE THREE SEAS TO INDIA. 5 

ing back from, the Gulf of Suez, there is a mountain of three 
precipitous peaks. It rises like a great granite trident. Here 
Professor Palmer, of Oxford, had been murdered about two 
years previously. Some years before his fatal visit he had made 
his tour through the Sinaitic Peninsula, the fruit of which was 
his masterly work, "The Exodus of Israel." He was now in 
Egypt for other than archaeological purposes. This time he was 
in the service of the government, helping to promote the Egyp- 
tian campaign, probably to purchase camels, or to secure the aid 
or neutrality of the wild and dangerous Sinaitic tribes. The 
agent of the Peninsular and Oriental Company, in Suez, knew 
him personally, and related to me a number of interesting facts 
concerning him. Among others was the following : 

The agent said to him, " You are going to a dangerous place 
just now." 

" Oh, no. I know the people and their language. I am used 
to their ways. I was there before, you know." 

" True enough," replied the agent, "but you did not then have 
seven thousand pounds sterling with you." 

" Oh, I am safe," replied Palmer. And he went straight to 
his death. He and his few companions were arrested, blind- 
folded, and hurled down a precipice from the top of a mountain. 
Several of his murderers were afterwards caught, and tried in 
Suez. They were all condemned to death. They were then 
separated, taken to different places, and executed. This method 
was adopted, no doubt, to avoid an organized attempt at rescue. 

As our steamer passed down the Gulf of Suez, both shores be- 
came very beautiful. The weather became hotter as we went 
southward. The ladies gave up their fans, and bore the heat 
most patiently. The gentlemen put on canvas slippers and gos- 
samer coats. Many of the passengers slept on deck all night. 

By one o'clock of the second day we had come into full view 
of the great Sinaitic range. One observes a ruggedness about 
its fine lines, and a sudden sharpness and angularity to its varied 
elevations, which make it different from the entire lower range 
which leads up to it. Even in the Tyrol and Switzerland such 
delightfully beautiful and delicate shades to mountain outlines 
are seldom observed. While some glowing and Turneresque 
colors could be seen in the sunrise of the Red Sea, the richest 
shades are in the evening, when the mountains are now fawn- 



•q INDIKA. 

color, now light green, and now shimmering purple and blue. 
These shades change again and again, according to the angle 
of vision and the degree of approaching darkness. The stars 
seem near at hand, as if one could pluck them. The desert is 
on either side, Egypt at the right, and Arabia at the left. 

The children were the happiest creatures on our steamer. 
One little fellow bore the name of " Ed." He had a brother 
named "Charley." The boy "Ed" entertained a profound prej- 
udice against his name, and insisted that everybody should call 
him " Charley," a name he greatly admired. That would make 
two of one name in the family. I concluded, from the persist- 
ency of the situation, that " Ed " would win, and that his parents 
would be compelled to make a new distribution of names. 

Our hottest day was November 3. Everybody gasped for air. 
The children, however, always magnificent on a journey, never 
uttered a word of complaint. I looked at them with admiration, 
and learned patience and silence. We were now far below Egypt 
and JSTubia. Mecca was only sixty miles back from the coast. 
At nightfall the Abyssinian mountains were all ablaze with the 
after-glow of the sunset. We passed twelve rocks in the middle 
of the throat of the Red Sea, which bear the name of the Twelve 
Apostles. The captain pointed out the smallest and most dan- 
gerous, and said it was " Judas." The next morning I asked the 
first officer, 

" When do we get to the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb 8" 

He looked at me with surprise, and answered, 

" We passed through them at three this morning." 

" Then I was asleep," I answered ; " and, as we have gone 
safely, I am quite satisfied." 

We had now made the twelve hundred and ten miles of the 
Red Sea's length, and in two hours should be at Aden. We 
were skirting 1 along the shore range of the southern coast of 
Arabia Deserta. 

The subjects which interest one are in the ratio of the. realm 
in which we live. When one is in the little world of a ship at 
sea, such themes become of interest as on shore would not attract 
a moment's attention. Nothing interested me more than the 
constant work of the postmaster in handling the mail-matter. 
I never wearied in watching him. At Suez our chief mail-agent 
came aboard. His work began at once. The time before reaching 



TEE TEBEE SEAS TO INDIA. 7 

Bombay is none too long for handling the mail and distributing 
and having ready the immense mass of matter for sending in all 
directions on arriving in India. In a steamer of the Peninsular 
and Oriental line on which Professor Monier Williams made a 
voyage, he says that there were three mail-agents, and that they 
worked ten hours a day from the time the steamer left Suez. 
They handled about forty-six thousand letters and thirty-five 
thousand newspapers, and distributed them in two hundred and 
fifty mail-bags, and had them all ready on landing at Bombay. 
He gives the following illustration of one of the difficulties be- 
setting a Peninsular and Oriental mail -agent. A letter was 
found with this address : 

J. Faden 
Sapper 
Engear 

Bromeday. 

This letter had been mailed in England, and sent to three Brom- 
leys before leaving the country. At last some mail-clerk sus- 
pected that " Engear" might mean India ; and so the letter Avas 
put into the Indian mail. The London supposition was quite 
correct. " Engear " did mean India ; " Bromeday " did mean 
Bombay ; and J. Faden received his letter.* 

Our halt at Aden was brief, but long enough to afford the pas- 
sengers time to go ashore and stroll along the one street of the 
old town. The place is believed by some scholars to be the Eden 
of Ezekiel (xxvii. 23) and the Endaimon of Periplus. The Ro- 
mans gave it the name of Portus Romanus. All passengers are 
amused at the remarkable feats of swimming by the little Ara- 
bian boys, who paddle out in light skiffs, and dive from them, and 
pick up coins thrown into the water by passengers before the 
bits of money can sink to the bottom. The favorite of these 
clattering and busy little swimmers, who in this way earned 
their livelihood, is one who has lost a leg, said to have been 
bitten off by a shark. By far the most of the money is tossed 
out to him. He is an expert swimmer, and, so far as I 
could see, his loss of a leg was a positive gain in his struggle 
for bread. 

* "Modern India and the Indians," p. 26. 



INDIRA. 




VIEW OF ADEN. 



On November 8 we were well out from Aden, and ploughing 
across the Arabian Sea. We had heavy weather, or what the 
sailors call a lumpy sea. The northeast monsoon had set in 
with fury, and the Sutlej was tossed about like a presidential 
candidate. My little room being high, the port was not yet 
closed. The ladies were not numerous at the table, and those 
who were present came with a very uncertain appearance. The 
spar-deck had the look of a hospital. The captain went around 
in a good-humored way, and told everybody what a rough pas- 
sage the last one had been. Commend me to physicians and 
ship-masters for the highest attainments in the language of en- 
couragement and hopefulness. I braced myself in my berth, and 
read Hunter's " Indian Empire," Isambert's " L'Orient, Grece, et 
Turque d'Europe," Muir's " Turks, Greeks, and Slavons," Isa- 
verdenz's " History of Armenia and the Armenians," and the 
Marquis of Bath's " Observations on Bulgarian Affairs." It was 
a piece of good-fortune not to run out of reading-matter. My 
supply of books, some of which I had brought from America, but 
had gathered the most in Germany, served me now delightfully. 



THE THREE SEAS TO INDIA. 9 

I was told, on the 9th, at breakfast, that the dining -saloon 
had gotten a drenching about four o'clock in the morning. 
The people who would not sleep in their rooms, but lay around 
on tables and seats, were taken by surprise at the incoming flood. 
But it was only a chance wave. There was none other like it. 
The weather continued intensely hot. But the kulis pulled the 
punkhas, and so fanned the few at table with commendable 
industry. • 




SITUATION OF BOMBAY ON THK GULF. 



CHAPTER II. 

ARRIVAL IN BOMBAY. 

On nearing the Indian coast there was less motion of the ship. 
We had come within touch of the land winds, and, though still a 
hundred miles from Bombay, could tell from the air and the color 
of the water that the shore was not far away. A beautiful but- 
terfly, borne off from his Indian field, flew about our deck, as if 
to bid us welcome to his beautiful India. The passengers busied 
themselves in packing up. They had much to pack, for, except 
those who had come aboard on the Italian coast, all except my- 
self had been on the ship twenty -five days. A pilot came 
aboard, bringing with him the Bombay Times of the same day. 
This journal said that Cleveland had been elected president. 
The first telegrams had insisted on Blaine's election. Neither 
account was believed to be definite. The result was, that the 
American residents of India were compelled to wait for the slow 
mail to know certainly who was elected. 

Is there anything, in all one's experience as a voyager, which 
brings him more joy than the first flash of the Indian coast ? 
It is a revelation, and, so far as I was concerned, the thrill of 
excitement lasted every day of my stay beneath its palms and 
within sound of the throb of its silver surf. My first view was 
under a cloudless sky. The Sutlej sailed grand]y on. By and 
by the pearly islands of the harbor sprang out into clear in- 
dividuality. The steamer slowed up, and we dropped anchor. 
The suburb of Kolaba bears off to the right, and loses itself in 
the sea. The lovely Malabar Eoad sweeps far around to the 
left, and its jagged rocks at the end mark the garden-wall of the 
governor's residence. Within this charming curve lies Bombay. 
Back of the city rise the ghats, or hills, which mark the scene 
of Wellington's conquest of the troublesome Marhattas. The 
valleys which divide the background of mountains, and the very 
mountain -sides themselves, tell the whole story of England's 



ARRIVAL IN BOMBAY. 13 

occupation and final possession of western India. Eastern India, 
though farther away from England, was first securely conquered 
by Olive. The question then was to overcome and possess the 
interjacent territory, or "Western India. The glove had been 
thrown out among enemies, and the question was now to fight 
for the place where it lay. When the smoke of Wellington's 
last battle rolled away before the incoming breezes from the 
Indian Ocean, England was mistress, and has ever remained so, 
over Marhattas and all else. 

The hills seemed to come near to us, like friendly hosts before 
their Indian door, to bid us hearty welcome. Up the ship's 
ladder, and in clamorous crowds, climbed the native boatmen. 
The best course in all such cases is to select your boatman early, 
take the first well-looking one you see, then never change him, 
or think of doing it. The competition and uncertainty would 
be distressing and overwhelming. When once you have your 
boatman, and he has even your lightest rug or smallest piece of 
baggage, the rest of his craft will let you alone. They consider 
you engaged. 

Many English people came to the ship's side in steam-launch- 
es, and climbed up the stepway to meet their friends from dear 
and far-off Britain. The mail had been long doing its kindly 
errands, and these friends in India knew the vessel, and almost 
the hour of her arrival, by which those dear to them would 
come. Since witnessing the endearing scenes I there saw, I can 
never associate coldness with the Englishman's nature. Those 
who do him this injustice should see his Indian welcomes. Here 
were fathers who had come from some distant part of India, 
and had been waiting several days in Bombay. They now 
stood upon the deck of the incoming vessel, and were broken up 
like very children themselves when they caught sight of their 
sons and daughters, who had been for years in England, in the 
schools, or with friends, and were now coming back again to 
take their place in the old household of their Anglo-Indian par- 
ents. Here were men who had been in the civil or military 
service of the Indian government ever since their youth, and, 
having served their twenty -five years, and spent a summer's 
vacation in England, had now come back again to India. 

Not one would have said it, had you asked him, that he was 
returning to India to spend his last years. All Englishmen ex- 



14 



INDIKA. 



pect to die in England. But the Anglo-Indian is most likely to 
die in India. So, when a number of my fellow-passengers went 
home to England, and looked about the old homes, and greeted 
the old friends, they saw nothing that was familiar to them. 
Everything had changed. Not even London, which every Eng- 
lishman expects to find much the same when he returns as when 
he had left it, could hardly be recognized as the same London of 
the elder days. With this breaking up of the old familiarities 
the Anglo-Indian can hardly find himself at home again in Eng- 
land. He turns his face towards India, after all, as his real 
home. When October comes, he provides himself with the nec- 
essaries of the voyage and engages passage for the land where 
he has spent his best life. He is more at home there. He is 
glad to get back. He likes India far better than he had sup- 
posed. The little graveyards all over India, from Cape Comorin 
to Lahor, and even in Afghanistan and Kashmir, tell the rest 
of the story. His dead and living bind him still to dear India. 

These are only a few of the touches of romance that one sees, 
in spite of himself, as he gathers his luggage together and makes 
ready to land. But all India is full of them. My right-hand 
neighbor at the table on the Sutlej had been in England for the 
summer. He had served out his time and had well earned his 
pension. He had gone back to England, as I should have thought, 
to spend the remainder of his life. But he could not find his 
old friends or environment. Hence he came back to India 
again. His malady was insomnia, and even sweet old England 
could not give him what he wanted. About two months after- 
wards, as I was changing trains at Benares, I heard a familiar 
voice calling to me. It was my neighbor at the table of the 
Sutlej. 

" How have you been ?" I asked. 

" Oh, only fairly well. Can't sleep. I am afraid— yes— it is 
a serious case." He was giving up. 

These were our last words together. Though he cannot sleep, 
even in India, he will hardly leave it again. 




CHAPTEE III. 

BOMBAY.— TOUCHES OF ITS HISTORY. 



Bombay is a fair illustration of the firmness 
of the Englishman's grasp. This one city rep- 
resents in miniature the whole history of the 
English people in the East. 

The entire western coast of India was a 
strong attraction to the Portuguese in the six- 
teenth century, when their keels were cleaving 
all seas. Wealth in Hindustan was as power- 
ful an incentive to this discovery and pos- 
session as it was to the conquest of South 

LAKSHMI, " OUR LADY ^ 

op bombay." America. The Portuguese aspirations dif- 

fered totally from the English. The Por- 
tuguese cavaliers and naval heroes entered India for conquest, 
dominion, and wealth. They had historical aims. Every move- 
ment was conducted with all the splendor of romance. The 
English entered India modestly, quietly, and solely for com- 
mercial purposes. Bombay, known probably as an excellent 
harbor, early attracted the Portuguese. They saw a little cluster 
of native houses, took possession of them, and built more. Soon 
the town grew into a population of ten thousand. 

The origin of the name Bombay is uncertain. The most likely 
theory is, that the word is a corruption of Malime and Mumbaye 
— the names of the two ports of the island on which the city now 
stands. According to Anderson, the second name, Mumbaye, or 
Momba Devi, was that of an idol, whose temple once stood on 
the Esplanade of the present city. In fact, a temple and tank of 
the name of Momba Devi still exist, and rank among the most 
interesting objects of the present native city. The presump- 
tion, therefore, is in favor of the heathen origin of the word 
Bombay. 



16 INDIRA. 

The English saw that the town would be a necessity for their 
commercial purposes, and therefore made several quiet efforts 
to possess it. But the Portuguese, though deriving little advan- 
tage from it, were not willing to part with what might become 
a valuable centre of trade. The English, however, were already 
masters in the art of getting things. What could not come as a 
desired acquisition fell as a wedding-gift into England's hands. 
On that May morning, in the year 1662, when the princess the 
Infanta Catharina of Braganza, daughter of John IT. of Portu- 
gal, married Charles II. of England, Bombay was presented to 
England as a part of the beautiful young lady's dowry. This 
was confirmed by an article in the treaty of June 23, 1661, which 
reads like a piece of rare satire ; for, among other objects of the 
gift, it was alleged, as one reason, that the King of England 
might protect Portuguese against the commercial aggression of 
the Dutch, who were now a third party, disputing the claim of 
the sea and of the Indian possessions. The treaty reads thus : 
That the cession is made "for the better improvement of the 
English interest and commerce in the East Indies, and that the 
King of Great Britain may be better enabled to assist, defend, 
and protect the subjects of the King of Portugal in those parts 
from the power and invasion of the States of the United Prov- 
inces." 

History utters no voice as to who suggested such a strange 
and far-off gift. A probable theory is, that the English am- 
bassador was instructed to say to the Portuguese government 
that Bombay would be an acceptable marriage present. 

But, thoroughly desirable as Bombay had been, it was no 
sooner in the hands of the English government than it was 
found to be, after all, only a troublesome elephant. It would 
cost more to take care of it than the little annual income of 
seven thousand pounds, which was the total annual revenue 
returned by the indigent and thriftless population of Bombay. 

The English government not knowing what to do with Bom- 
bay, the king looked about for some one to whom to present the 
city. The East India Company stood ready to accept it, and did 
so, in consideration of paying annually into the treasury of Great 
Britain the nominal sum of ten pounds sterling. This was all 
that was ever asked, and all that was ever given. No sooner 
did the Company enter Bombay than it began to take special 



BOMBAY. — TOUCHES OF ITS HISTOBY. 17 

measures for the improvement of the city and for the encourage- 
ment of colonists. For five years the Company promised exemp- 
tion from customs ; made the taxes very low ; gave looms to the 
weavers, to encourage the manufacture of silk and cotton goods ; 
permitted settlers to come, and possess any land not already 
occupied ; and guaranteed the ownership of such land to them. 
The Company encouraged the Protestant faith, but declared per- 
fect religious liberty to all who would become citizens of the new 
city. 

The result was, that Bombay became the most attractive place 
in the East Indies, not only to Englishmen, but to people from 
many lands. Persians came in very large numbers, and made 
India their permanent home. Also Arabs, the Topazes, or Indo- 
Portuguese, and, indeed, people from every part of the Eastern 
world, drifted to Bombay, and combined to build up the city. It 
was a contest as to which race should acquire the most land 
and build up the largest business. The strife went on with 
great animation. By and by the town became a great centre of 
trade — the hand which received the manufactures of Europe, 
and, in return, sent back the fine wares of the Indian artisan 
into the Western world. 

But clouds hung over the future of India. This pearl of the 
sea could not be purchased at the small price which the English 
had so far paid. 

By the year 1682 the population of Bombay had grown to 
sixty thousand. Such prosperity could not escape the notice of 
powerful freebooters. The city became an object of jealousy 
and invasion, on both land and sea. The corsair Seedu, an 
Abyssinian sailor, was ravaging the ports along the coast, carry- 
ing off the people into bondage, and selling them as slaves. Yet 
he was the authorized tool of the Great Mogul, who was ruling 
in Delhi and Agra, and was winning new provinces, extending 
his rule into Northern India, and looking towards the south and 
west for more booty. The English would not allow Seedu to 
sell his slaves in Bombay or its neighborhood, and, because of 
this refusal, the wild rover invaded Bombay. Every house was 
converted into an arsenal of defence. The place which after- 
wards became the historical Fort of the city, and was the citadel 
of the place, was thrown into intense excitement. The whole 
city caught the wild fever of defence. But the English were 
2 



18 INDIKA. 

powerless, as they soon saw, and what they could not do by 
strength they achieved by stratagem. They secured from the 
reigning Mogul emperor, Aurangzeb, an order for Seedu to 
withdraw from his attack. 

So much for danger from the sea. Now came the greater 
risk from the land. The Marhattas, under the lead of the cele- 
brated Sivaji, saw that the way to hasten the downfall of the 
Mogul empire was the capture of the English trading settle- 
ments along the western coast. Surat, the very centre of Eng- 
lish power and commerce, was constantly exposed to danger. 
Bombay would be safer. As a result, the local government of 
the East India Company was removed from Surat to Bombay. 
In the year 1708 the latter city, with its surrounding territory, 
was made a Presidency. 

The efforts of the Marhattas to get control of Bombay were 
now of the most desperate character. One of their chiefs, Angria, 
captured an English ship, the Success. Clive afterwards appeared 
on the scene, but just as he was about to lead the English troops 
against the Marhattas, the Bombay government kept him back, 
in consequence of a peace which had been patched up between 
the East India Company and the Marhattas. But he always 
knew how to find a way to fight when he saw that English au- 
thority was in danger. Clive was one of those rare men who 
was never disturbed at the want of an opportunity. He had the 
genius to create the opportunity whenever he wanted one. The 
Marhattas were now convinced of the power of English author- 
ity, repudiated Angria, their pirate chief, and joined the English 
in measures against him. Clive had his suspicions. He knew 
the Oriental methods. Fighting was resolved on. It was ar- 
ranged that Clive should lead the land forces, while Admiral 
Watson should conduct the attack on the corsair fortress, Ghe- 
riah. The fortress fell, and became an English possession. 

This achievement, largely due to Clive, enlarged the territory 
of Bombay, and made that city a secure place for the future. It 
is a singular fact that this work of Clive was a mere incident in 
his career. He had won three victories in Arcot, which had 
given Southern India to England, and had now gone home with 
the prospect of staying. But as the East India Company had 
new trouble in Bengal, and their authority and possessions were 
in danger from the French, they entreated Clive to return, and 



BOMB A T. — TO UCHES OF ITS HISTOR T. 19 

establish English rule against all future contingency. He seems 
to have seen the danger of the western coast, and to have ap- 
preciated the importance to England of making Bombay, its 
nearest Indian port, secure. At any rate, he went to India by 
way of Bombay, instead of by Madras, and had authority to use 
the Company's troops. Having done this most effectively, he 
went to Bengal, and, in the following year, 1757, fought and won 
the battle of Plassey. 

Bombay now rapidly increased in wealth and population. 
But the Marhattas were at heart bitter enemies to the English. 
Even after their power was broken by the terrible defeat at 
Panipat, they again harassed Bombay, and threatened to destroy 
it. Back and forth the tide of fortune went with Bombay, as 
with the English interests in general on the western coast, until 
1805, when sufficient territory was secured to the Presidency to 
make it strong against any inroads from native princes. It was 
reserved for Arthur Wellesley, afterwards Lord "Wellington, to 
achieve such victories, in 1804, as led to this security, and en- 
abled him to leave India after services inferior only to those of 
Clive and Hastings. 

One would little suspect, as he walks along the Esplanade of 
the present Bombay, that this large city of eight hundred thou- 
sand inhabitants, and covering twelve islands, should have risen 
to its present wealth and commercial importance out of such 
small and precarious conditions. One by one the very evidences 
of the old military character of the place have disappeared. The 
European quarter occupies what is still called the Fort. The 
place is covered by a large park, by Watson's Hotel, the Clock 
Tower, the University Hall, the markets, the Town Hall, the 
School of Design, and other public buildings. Many of these 
edifices would be an ornament to any European capital. One 
sees a freshness and a variety in the architecture of the larger 
structures of Bombay which have the most pleasing effect. The 
air is always invigorating in the early morning. I first learned 
here that, if one will utilize his Indian day, be must begin by five 
o'clock. 

My first stay in Bombay lasted nearly two weeks. Every day 
was one of exquisite pleasure. Each morning I took a walk, 
generally varying the direction, that I might see Bombay in its 
varied humors. One time I strolled along Meadow Street, and 



20 INDIRA. 

saw the shopkeepers from Persia and Kashmir opening their 
places of business, and getting ready for their day's trade. An- 
other walk was along Kampart Eow, where every building and 
many faces became familiar. At another time I strolled as far 
up towards the native city as the market, bought a few of the 
sweet apples from Kashmir, and returned by either the same 
street or a more circuitous one. Then, on another morning, I 
walked along the shore of the bay, in the direction of the Grant 
Buildings and the Cotton Market. I always timed myself by 
the clock in the Tower, for breakfast came at nine. 

The following remark was made to me soon after landing in 
Bombay : 

" Perhaps you thought your war in America, in 1861, did no 
good ? It has done this much for us — it has made Bombay what 
it is." 

I heard afterwards, from various sources, that the interruption 
of the cotton industry by our war produced such a revival of the 
production of that staple in India that the wealth and business 
of Bombay, which was the chief Indian gainer by our calamity, 
had greatly increased. It was a prosperity unanticipated, which 
has been rapidly doubling ever since. 

During these walks, but especially during my lengthy drives 
in the evening, I was surprised at the many evidences of in- 
dividual liberality which I frequently saw. Bishop Heber, when 
entering Bombay, in 1825, said : " On this side of India there is 
really more zeal and liberality displayed in the improvement of 
the country, the construction of walks and public buildings, the 
conciliation of the natives, and their education, than I have yet 
seen in Bengal." His reference was largely to the remarkable 
benefits accruing to Bombay from Elphinstone's administration, 
from 1820 to 1827. But his tribute to the government would, 
even thus early, have been equally just had it been applied to 
the late participation of the natives themselves in their own im- 
provement. Many years ago it was not unfrequently the case 
that native citizens would found hospitals, and build public 
fountains of a charitable and beneficent purpose. But in recent 
years this tendency has assumed large proportions. One can 
hardly go into any part of Bombay, or out into the suburbs, 
without being amazed at the magnificent evidences of native 
benefaction. 



J^ 




CHAPTER IV. 

THE FIRST EUROPEANS IN INDIA. 

When the Europeans first became acquainted with India, and 
took a profound interest in the country, is one of the lost secrets 
of history. It is probable that when Greece began to emerge 
from its primitive and wild state, there were men who went to 
India as travellers, lingered in the towns, and after years of wan- 
dering came home again and communicated fragments of knowl- 
edge to their native country in the West. Others, remembering 
the humble attainments of their Greek countrymen in the arts 
and sciences, may have borne back with them some of the pre- 
cious secrets from far-off India. Were it possible to restore the 
old conditions of Greece when she was as yet only a disciple at 
the feet of the elder nations, we might behold in the villages 
along the shores of the Greek isles, and in the advancing towns 
of Attica, minstrels grown gray and weary with long journeys, 
singing, to the groups in the open Greek spaces, of the distant 
land of India, with its many millions of people, its highly de- 
veloped arts and industries, and its heroic leaders on many an 
Aryan battle-field. Many of the descriptions in the Iliad bear 
unmistakable evidences of Indian suggestion. The striking par- 
allels between the working in metals, the household life and the 
domestic usages then existing in Greece, and the same conditions 
in India, as recently brought to light by archaeological research, 
are more than accidents. They prove a high and common pa- 
ternity. 

The first important records by the Greeks concerning India 
which have come down to our times are by Megasthenes, Near- 
chus, Herodotus, Ctesias, Arrian, Strabo, Quintus Curtius. Dio- 
dorus Siculus (b.c. 55) and Strabo (b.c. 54), as geographers, gave 
minute and accurate information concerning India. But Arrian 
was the first great narrator of Indian life and history. Yet 
he was only a borrower. He utilized the works of his seniors 



24 INDIKA. 

in history — Megasthenes and Nearchus — to excellent advantage. 
The works of these two writers have been lost ; and Arrian, in 
his description of Alexander's campaign in India, has gathered 
up from the journals of these two writers such fragments as 
reconcile us in a measure to the oblivion of the precious records 
of which he made full use.* 

It was not the usage of military leaders in ancient times, any 
more than in the modern, to enter upon a long campaign with- 
out accurate knowledge of the countries through which they 
needed to march on their path of subjugation. Alexander, when 
he crossed the Bosphorus into Asia, and began his great campaign, 
undoubtedly supplied himself with all the records then in exist- 
ence, and secured all possible help from those who had visited 
India. The ancient leaders were consummate masters in the art 
of acquiring information useful towards success. Here Alexan- 
der displayed as much skill and was as industrious in acquisition, 
as he was brave in person and fertile of resource iri the enemy's 
presence.. It was only after his victories in India and his death, 
and the hopeless breaking up of his broad empire, that the com- 
munication between Greece and India was frequent. The doors 
opened by his great army have never since been closed. That 
the European knowledge of Indian wealth and of the resources 
of the soil was accurate, may be seen in the description of the 
country by Dionysius : 

"To the east a lovely country wide extends, 
India, whose borders the wide ocean bound ; 
On this the sun, new rising from the main, 
Smiles pleased, and sheds his early orient beams. 
The inhabitants are swart, and in their locks 
Betray the tints of the dark hyacinth. 
Various their functions : some the rocks explore, 
And from the mines extract the latent gold ; 
Some labor at the woof with cunning skill, 
And manufacture linen ; others shape 
And polish ivory with nicest care ; 
Many retire to rivers' shoal, and plunge 
To seek the beryl flaming in its bed, 
Or glittering diamond. Oft the jasper's found 
Green, but "diaphanous; the tojjaz, too, 

* Crawfurd, " Researches Concerning Laws, Theology, Learning, and Com- 
merce of Ancient and Modern India," vol. ii., p. 225. 



THE FIRST EUROPEANS IN INDIA. 27 

Of ray serene and pleasing ; last of all 

The lovely amethyst, in which combine 

All the mild shades of purple. The rich soil, 

Wash'd by a thousand rivers, 

Pours on the natives wealth without control." 

AN EVENTFUL AFFEONT. 

One day, while Alexander was in India, there appeared at his 
tent-door a native Hindu prince. His manner was friendly, and 
he seems to have expressed a willingness to serve Alexander, 
hoping, of course, to escape the rigors of the new Greek master. 
He was treated coldly by the mighty conqueror from the "West. 
As a result his pride was wounded, and he withdrew without 
formality. If we may judge from his subsequent career, from 
the very moment of his departure he declared revenge on the 
Greeks. He visited native rulers, raised a great army, placed 
himself at the head of it, and by one victory after another be- 
came the instrument of breaking up the unity of the Greek rule 
in India. The name of this chief was Chandra Gupta. The 
Panjabi viceroy, who represented Alexander after his death, was 
driven out of the country by Chandra Gupta. Seleukos, how- 
ever, one of Alexander's generals, endeavored to regain hold on 
India, and again invaded the country. What took place proves 
that Seleukos found his task very difficult. His conquest was 
formal rather than otherwise. Whatever the cause, a new ele- 
ment came into the conflict. Seleukos gave to Chandra Gupta 
his daughter in marriage. In addition, he ceded to the powerful 
prince all the provinces east of the Indus which had been con- 
quered by the Greeks, on the slight consideration that the Indian 
ruler should send to Seleukos an annual gift of fifty elephants. 
This was the ignoble end of the great Alexander's conquest of 
India — fifty elephants to a Syrian king ! * 

At the time of Alexander there existed in India one hundred 
and eighteen separate kings. No slavery was tolerated. The 
men were brave and the women chaste. Honesty prevailed, and 
no lock was needed on any door. The Indian did not lie, and no 

* The best work we have met with on the early communication between 
Europe and India is Macpherson's "History of the European Commerce with 
India." London, 1812. 



28 INDIKA. 

one ever thought of accusing him of it. The Brahmans (Brach- 
manes) were the priestly and the scholarly class. The farmers 
were exempted from war and public duties. Fabrics of various 
kinds were manufactured. The Brahmans made forecasts of 
rainfall to guard against famine, and " the philosopher who errs 
in his predictions must observe silence the rest of his life." * 

Megasthenes divided all India into eight castes : philosophers, 
husbandmen, shepherds, artisans, soldiers, overseers, councillors, 
and assessors.f These castes, however, must not be regarded as 
the inflexible divisions of modern times. The growth of the 
present wretched system of social and religious differences was 
not even sanctioned by the earlier Yedas. This evil is only one 
of the many proofs in India of the fact that any system, lack- 
ing divine authority, really gravitates downward. 

Recent studies on the origins of philosophical thought are 
bringing out the fact of an important parallelism between the 
Indian systems and the philosophical structures of Greece. 

There are, unquestionably, Oriental elements in Pythagoras 
and Plato, and other Greeks ; and the view formerly prevailed 
that India was the great source from which the great Greek 
thinkers derived large portions of their speculative philosophy. 
But the most recent investigations prove that, in this depart- 
ment, India was the borrower from Greece. The path by which 
the sciences reached India is not yet fully determined, but it is 
most likely that it lay through Bactriana, which had a large 
Greek population, and derived its culture from the northern 
country. The most ancient Hindu works of astronomy, as those 
of Yarahavinra, who lived in the 6th century, frequently em- 
ployed Greek terminology, and refer to the Greeks.;}: 

It is strongly claimed by the most philosophical of all the 
recent European writers on India, M. Le Bon, that India derived 
all its great theoretical sciences from Arabia and Greece. He 
holds that the mathematical works of Aryabhata, of the fifth 
century, and those of the celebrated Brahmagupta, of the sev- 



* Megasthenes, " Fragmeuta " (Ed. Didot), in " Fragm. Histor. Graec," vol. ii., 
p. 426b. 

t " Ancient India as Described by Magasthenes and Arrian," Calcutta, 1877, 
pp. 42 ff. 

j Le Bon, " Les Civilisations de l'Inde," p. 548. 



THE FIRST EUROPEANS IN INDIA. 



29 



enth century, are only borrowings from Greece.* But we regret 
that this author does not furnish his proof. We are compelled 
to hold, for example, that the Hindus originated instruction by 
apologues, and the decimal notation by nine digits and zero. 
Colebroke says that in algebra the Greeks were behind the 
Hindus. The early Hindus knew that the square of the hy- 
pothenuse of the triangle is equal to the squares of the sides 
containing the right angle. They divided the circumference of 
the circle into three hundred and sixty equal parts, and each 
into sixty others, which is the same as our division into degrees, 




CARPET WEAVING. 

minutes, and seconds. The Hindus conceived the } T ear to con- 
sist of three hundred and sixty -five days, five hours, thirty min- 
utes, and forty seconds. This division differs only lfV 3 ^ from 
the new solar tables of Delambre.f Abu Fazl declares that the 
arts and sciences of his country were three hundred in number. 
Chemistry was cultivated with rare skill and success. The 
science of medicine was carried to a high degree. The Hindu 
legends say that one of the fourteen precious ratnas, or precious 



* " Les Civilisations de l'Inde," p. 549. 

t Royle, "Lecture XL, On Arts and Manufactures of India," p. 343. 



30 



INDIKA. 



things which the gods are believed to have produced by churn- 
ing the ocean with the mountain Mandaran, was a learned phy- 
sician. Even the way in which the Hindus met Alexander 
when he invaded their country, proves their advancement in 
the art of war. They led against him a disciplined army of 
thirty thousand infantry, with elephants and war-chariots.* 

* Martin, " Progress and Present State of British India," p. 8. 




SILK-AND-GOLD EMBROIDERY ON SILK, PERSIAN-. 



CHAPTER Y. 

THE ANGLO-SAXON IN INDIA.— HISTORICAL ANTECEDENTS. 

On landing in Bombay one immediately becomes deeply 
interested in the novelty of the Oriental types. Even while in 
the Levant, it is natural to imagine one's self already in the 







OVERLOOKING THE CITY OF BOMBAY. 



Eastern world. Yet the first scenes in Bombay are so peculiar,' 
so utterly unlike anything in Asia Minor, Syria, or Egypt, that 
the traveller is convinced at once that now, for the first time, he 
is really in the East. After a few days, when the Indian cos- 
tumes, modes of life and business, and the wonderful mixture of 
races become somewhat familiar, the mind wanders back into 
the past, and the question arises, " How has all this come about ? 
Why is the intrusive Anglo-Saxon also in India ? What is he 
doing here ? How long does he intend to stay, and what does 
he expect to be the outcome?" 

The manifold ownership of this great country is one of the 
marvels in the world's history. Is there any land which has had 



32 INDIKA. 

more masters than this % The history is one long tragedy. For 
thirty centuries India has been compelled to pay the painful 
penalty of possessing the fatal gifts of wealth and beauty. She 
is the Lorelei of all the ages. She has attracted the conqueror 
from afar, but, with only the Anglo-Saxon exception, invariably 
dealt him ruin when once within sound of her siren voice. 

The whole of India is one immense God's acre of dead civiliza- 
tions and forgotten races. The area of the country is one million 
five hundred thousand square miles. From Karachi in the west 
to the eastern borders of Assam in the east the distance is eighteen 
hundred miles. From the northern boundary of the Panjab to 
Cape Comorin, in the south, it is also eighteen hundred miles. 
The population of this immense territory is about two hundred 
and fifty-three millions. Some writers now place it as high as 
two hundred and sixty millions. The country tips towards the 
east, the range of hills, or ghats, on the western coast being- 
higher than that on the eastern. 

Western Ghats 

IruLUuvf^ Extern <rhcubs Bay of 

OcecLro-J. -> Bengal 

W E 

The Briton rules this whole territory, either in direct sov- 
ereignty or by feudal grasp. Numbers count but little. It is a 
question of brain, gunpowder, and muscle. The ratio of the 
ruler to the subject is no longer a secret. There are in India one 
hundred and forty thousand Englishmen, civilians and soldiers. 
Out 'of this number there are nine hundred members of the Cov- 
enanted Service. These last are the administrators of the gov- 
ernment of all India. Less than a thousand men, therefore, 
Britons all, govern two hundred and fifty millions of Indian na- 
tives. No questions are asked. Each class well understands the 
other. England rules far India more easily than near Ireland. 

The first appearance of India in the general and prominent 
history of nations was when the Aryans conquered and ruled 
the country. They, far off as they seem to us, were only later 
comers into the attractive valleys of the Ganges and the Indus. 

From the Aryan to the Englishman the path has been long, 
and many have walked in it. The Mohammedans, or Persian 
Moguls, the Portuguese, the Dutch, the Danes, the French, and 



THE ANGLO-SAXON IN INDIA.— HISTORICAL ANTECEDENTS. 33 

then the English, have each stepped upon the golden shore, and 
claimed the land for themselves.* But they have all dropped 
aside, excepting only the Anglo-Saxon. This man, of inevitable 
destiny, coming latest and profiting by the mishaps of all his pred- 
ecessors, has caught the secret of staying. He is now as much 
at home in Madras as in Piccadilly. He sits at the table of 
Watson's Hotel in Bombay, and eats his curry and rice, and slings 
his gun across his shoulder for a day's hunt around the waters of 
Surat, with a couple of kulis to follow his every step with such 
collected air that one would think this latest master had discov- 
ered the country and invented all its industries. India is already 




THE "LAKSHMIDAS KHIMJI KAPAD BAZAR," A CLOTH MARKET IN BOMBAY. 

and permanently Saxon. Scratch a Hindu and you reach an 
Englishman. What is the Hindu but the Aryan who first es- 
tablished himself in India, say five thousand years ago ? What 
is the Anglo-Saxon but an Aryan who settled in Europe and 
began the central chapters in the world's general history ? He is 
the same Aryan, whether on the banks of the Ganges, the Weser, 
the Thames, the Seine, or the Hudson. When the Anglo-Saxon 
went to India, in the person of wild Robert Clive, it was only 
the Aryan going back to the old homestead, as Alexander did 



* Lethbridge, " Short Manual of the History of India," p. 244. 



34 



INDIKA. 



over twenty centuries ago. When the German Ziegenbalg went 
to Tranquebar with his printing-press, and Carey went to Ser- 
ampore with his open Bible, it was an Aryan visitation, to renew 
acquaintance with long-separated kinsmen. It was good advice 
which Hafiz, the Persian poet, born in the original Aryan home, 
gave to his brothers who had suffered from violent hands. It 
were well if the conquered India of these last days would bless 
the hand which offers gifts better than the sword. 

" Learn from Orient shell to love thy foe, 
And store with pearls the hand that brings thee woe; 
Free, like yon rock, from base vindictive pride, 
Emblaze with gems the wrist that rends thy side. 
Mark where yon tree rewards the stony shower 
With fruit nectareous, or the balmy flower. 
All nature calls aloud, ' Shall man do less 
Than heal the smiter and the railer bless ?' " 




CHAPTER YI. 

INDIA IN HISTORY. 
I. — The Original Inhabitants. 

The first inhabitants of India of whom we have even the most 
vague traces bear no general name, but are grouped under the 
general term of non- Aryans. They consisted of three great 
stocks : the Tibeto-Burman tribes, which came down into India 




LORD CLIVE. 

(From the painting in the Government House, Calcutta.) 

from the northeastern gateway of the Himalayas, and still cling 
to the eastern ranges ; the Kolarian tribes, which also entered 
by the same gateway, and still live in the hilly northeastern re- 



36 INDIKA. 

gion ; and the Draviclian tribes, which entered by the northeast- 
ern gateway, and drifted southward, and whose posterity still 
occupy the southernmost part of India.* 

If we may judge by the rude remains of these elementary 
tribes, war was their chief occupation. Some of them were wild 
savages. They were not acquainted with the use of metals, and 
their rough flint weapons and agate knives are now to be found 
in the Narbada valley. They did not use letters, or even hiero- 
glyphs. The only works we have from them are upright slabs 
and the places where t\iQj interred their dead. They were suc- 
ceeded by others, who were also ignorant of the use of metals, 
but hunted and fought with stone implements of nearly the same 
character as the early Scandinavian weapons, which we can see 
in endless variety in the museum in Copenhagen. Still later we 
come to the mound-builders, who knew the use of metals, fought 
with iron weapons, understood the manufacture of earthenware, 
and wore ornaments of gold and copper. 

The duration of this long non- Aryan period is uncertain. 
There were many grades of intelligence, however, some of the 
tribes being in a state of abject slavery, while their masters 
were intelligent, and knew the power of civil government. The 
earliest non-Aryans seem to have had no religious rites, while 
the latest, who held the countr\ r at the time of the great Aryan 
invasion, had a religion, believed in the future, and adorned 
their dead with gifts, raiment, and ornaments. In this they 
gave proof that they believed their dead would attain to a future 
life. That these non- Aryan inhabitants of India were brave and 
patriotic, and knew the value of their country, is abundantly at- 
tested by the great Indian epics, which describe the long struggle 
of the Aryans to conquer India. Though no authentic history 
has come down to us concerning this mighty war of races, and 
we are compelled to rely solely on the mythical poetry of the 
epic writers, it is not likely that bloodier battles were ever fought 
than those which resulted in the possession of India by the Ar- 
yan invaders. The conquerors, if we may believe the Yedic 
hymns, loathed their enemies, whose lands they were striving to 
overrun. They called them Dasyus, or "slaves." They declared 
them " noseless," or flat-nosed, " disturbers of sacrifices," " gross 

* Hunter, " Brief History of the Indian People," pp. 32 ff. 



INDIA IN HISTORY. 



37 




THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON. 



feeders on flesh," "raw eaters," and " without gods and without 
rites." 

When the aboriginal tribes were conquered, they either fled 
to the mountains or became serfs to the Aryan lords of the soil. 
During all subsequent ages some of these aboriginal tribes have 
kept their languages and dialects, and have preserved a certain 
measure of individuality. But they have remained the most ab- 
ject part of the population of India. The servitude which was 
the outcome of the great Aryan struggle has left its permanent 
impression upon them. 

II. — The Great Invasions. 

India has been the world's Eastern battle-field. The invasions 
have been on a vast scale, and are the real measure of the great 



38 INDIRA. 

foreign estimate placed upon the value of the land and the treas- 
ures of the people. The great invasions, with two exceptions, 
by Asiatic forces, have been eleven in number : 

1. The Aryan Invasion. 

2. Invasion by Sesostris, King of Egypt, b.c. 1308. 

3. Persian Invasion by Darius Hystaspes, b.c. 518. 

4. Invasion by Alexander the Great, b.c 327. 

5. The Scythian Invasions, b.c 100-a.d. 500. 

6. The Tartar Invasion, b.c 126. 

7. The Invasion of Mahmud of Ghazni, a.d. 1001. 

8. The Invasion of Tamerlane, a.d. 1398. 

9. The Invasion of Babar, a.d. 1526. 

10. The Invasion of Nadir Shah, a.d. 1739. 

11. The Invasion of Ahmad Shah al Abdali, a.d. 1761. 

III. — The Gkeat Aryan Invasion and Conquest. 

The Aryans first appear in history as an advanced and grow- 
ing race in the upper table-lands of the southerly districts of Cen- 
tral Asia and Turkestan— probably the Pamir plateau and the 
region surrounding the sources of the Oxus.* Their home was 
Bam-i-Dunya, the " Roof of the World." But this land, though 
broad and beautiful, was not near enough to the sun, and the soil 
too unyielding, for the great genius and boundless ambition of its 
occupants. The Aryans began to colonize, not as peaceful migra- 
tory bodies, but as armed hosts, marching boldly forth for the 
possession of fairer fields and for the blood of all who stood in 
their path to possession. The sparks from this metal, carried to 
white heat, flew off with amazing rapidity. Each one carried 
destiny with it. They fell upon three continents. 

The first outgoing host took a westward path, and on its way 
founded the great Persian empire. It then reached Europe, and, 
finding it wild and disorganized, set to work to bring it into 
shape and within the grasp of law. It created the history of the 
classic and modern world. It founded the Greek republics, built 
and governed Rome, occupied Spain, produced the Teuton race, 
converted Gaul into France, and peopled and moulded Britain into 
its present shape and history. The Anglo-Saxon was thus the di- 

* Willi asfts^ Modern India and the Indians," p. 148. 



I2TDIA IJV HISTORY. 39 

rect offspring of Aryan ancestry. The roots of the most familiar 
words spoken by Harold and his soldiers who fell at Hastings 
before the Normans, had floated all the way along the Persian 
pathway, and still live in the Sanskrit taught by Brahman pun- 
dits beneath the palms which fringe the banks of the lower 
Ganges. Wherever these Aryans went towards the setting sun 
they carried victory, law, organization. 

Another Aryan body, or possibly a part of the larger one 
moving westward, struck a southwestern path, and Egypt was 
its miracle. 

But these great movements did not exhaust the Aryans of the 
homestead. There was a portion of the race which thought it 
best to take its chances by going towards the rising sun. They 
pressed down through the Afghan passes upon the plains of the 
Indus and the Ganges, caught the aroma of the plants and 
flowers of India, and set vigorously to work to conquer the 
country. They pushed onward as by a spell of enchantment. 
The very air seemed to give them the spirit of conquest. The 
wealth which they took in battle was enormous. No aboriginal 
armies could stand before them. They halted in the Panjab, 
and founded settlements along the banks of the Saraswati, a 
small river between the Jamna and the Satlej. Here they be- 
came famous. It was in this territory, including the North Be- 
har of the present Hindustan, that the Aryans created the rich 
Sanskrit language, produced their immortal bards and sages, and 
developed that wealth of poetic literature which must forever 
hold a firm place in the family of the world's great epics. This 
is the country which bears the name of Brahmarshidesa, the 
Hindu's Holy Land. It is his Palestine. He thinks of it with 
the profoundest reverence, because of its association with the 
most heroic deeds of his immortal ancestors. The Aryans here 
organized a government, and possessed houses, chariots, mailed 
armor, ships, and merchandise. The government was patriarchal. 
The tribal chief was priest. 

But even here these Aryan masters found the field too small. 
The farmers put on their weapons and marched farther into 
Hindustan. They did not know when or where to stop. On 
they went, dropping off colonies, organizing governments, ap- 
pointing satraps, and then conquering new regions. Finally, 
they subjugated nearly the whole of the broad India of to-day, 



40 



INBIKA. 



extending from the Arabian Sea on the west to the bay of Ben- 
gal on the east, and from the Himalayas in the north to Cape 
Comorin in the south. They gave their whole land the name 
Aryavartta, or the Land of the Aryans.* 

Nation after nation went down before these victorious Aryan 
armies. Many were so thoroughly conquered that their identity 
seems to have been lost. The northern nations which fell be- 
fore them bore the generic name of Dasyus. The southern may 
be grouped under the broad term of Dravidians, who extended 
down to Cape Comorin. 

IY. — The Brahman Supremacy. 

The ascendency of the Brahmans, or the priestly caste, was the 
first period during which we observe approaches to a settled 

government of the Aryan race 
in India. The long process of 
civil organization gave evidence 
of all the great qualities which 
distinguished the Aryans on 
' their first battle-fields in India. 
This process continued about 
fifteen centuries, or from b.c. 
2000 to b.c 543. It was in this 
time that the Yedic hymns were 
composed. The earlier Yedas 
tell of the Aryans in the first 
stage of their conquest and gov- 
ernment in the extreme north- 
west. The later Yedas bring the Aryan race farther southward, 
not only conquering their foes, but establishing a permanent gov- 
ernment on the banks of the Ganges, f 

The Rig Yeda, a collection of one thousand and seventeen 
short poems, and containing ten thousand five hundred and 
eighty verses, reveals the first Aryan civilization in India. The 
family was presided over by the father, who was the priest, 

* Lethbridge, " History of India," pp. 137 ff. 

t Hunter, " Brief History of the Indian People," pp. 46 ff. Fergusson and 
Burgess say that the Brahman ascendency continued to the middle of the third 
century before Christ (" Cave Temples of India," pp. 12, 13). But this position 
is unquestionably untenable, because of the earlier rise of Buddhism, B.C. 543. 




BRAHMA. 



INDIA IN HISTORY. 41 

while the chief of the tribe was father and priest to the tribe. 
The king was elected by the tribe. Women were held in high 
honor, and noble ladies and queens became the authors of some 
of the most beautiful hymns. There were various craftsmen, 
such as blacksmiths, coppersmiths, goldsmiths, carpenters, and 
masters in other trades. The Aryans had towns and villages, 
and used chariots and cavalry in battle. 

Four divisions, or castes, arose — the original source of the 
present caste system of the Hindu race. The first caste was 
the Brahmans, or priests ; the second was the warriors, the fight- 
ing companions of the king ; the third was the agricultural class ; 
and the fourth was the Sudras, or conquered non- Aryans, who 
were serfs. The Brahmans became the highest class, and have 
remained so until the present day. They were not only the 
priests who preserved the sacred writings, but the makers and 
teachers of the law, the poets and the men of science. The two 
great epics of this period — the Mahabharata and the Ramayana 
— were composed by them. The former, which comes down to 
b.c. 1200, tells of the Aryan conquest and settlement in north- 
ern India. The latter describes the Aryan conquest of southern 
India. There are other epics of inferior grade which come down 
to a time approaching the Christian era. They describe the le- 
gends of the gods more than the actual exploits of the Aryan 
heroes. 

The long line of kings professing the Brahman faith cannot 
be definitely traced, since it is impossible to detect, in Hindu 
chronology, where fable ends and history begins. Saha-deva was 
king at the time of the Mahabharata war. The thirty-fifth 
king in succession from him was Ajata-Satru, who murdered his 
father, Brinbasara, and whose reign witnessed the birth of 
Buddhism.* 

V.— The Buddhist (Religious) Supremacy. 

b.c. 543-a.d. 1000. 

The dynasties professing the Brahman faith ruled India with- 
out serious obstacles until the rise of Buddhism, about b.c 543. 
The greatest ruler who openly espoused the system of Buddha 
with a view to establish and propagate it, was the celebrated 

* Pope, " Text Book of Indian History," p. 39. 



42 INDIKA. 

Asoka, king of Magadha, or Behar. He was converted to 
Buddhism about b.c. 257, and made his government one im- 
mense machine to propagate his faith. Kanishka, a king of 
the Scythian line, was also a zealous Buddhist. He convened 
the fourth great Buddhist council, a.d. 40. The celebrated Si- 
laditya, of the seventh century, was a zealous advocate of Bud- 
dhism. He called the fifth great council, a.d. 634. 

VI. — The Greek (Political) Supremacy in India, 
b.c. 327-161. 

The Greek episode in Indian history is of profound signifi- 
cance. For ages there had been no direct intercourse between 
the Aryan wanderers in Europe and their kinsmen in India. 
Each, widely separated in the world, was working out its destiny. 
The two groups were strangely alike, however, whether study- 
ing astrology on the plains of Delhi, or rearing the matchless 
Parthenon at Athens, or building on the banks of the Tiber a 
city destined to rule the world. Each scion of the Aryan family 
was intense in its search for truth, for framing law, for occupa- 
tion of the land, for the government of men. 

Greece was fragrant with Indian associations. The brothers, 
long separated, seem to have maintained a subtle sense of rela- 
tionship. The mythology of Greece, coming from the Aryan 
hearthstone, could not be unlike that of India, emanating from 
the same place. The ancient Hindu pantheon is strangely simi- 
lar to, and often identical in name with, that of Greece. The 
Latin word for heaven (coelum), coming through the Greek, is 
believed to owe its origin to the Indian mount Kailas, which 
rises to the enormous height of thirty thousand feet !* It can- 
not be doubted that whenever a Greek conqueror arose above 
the surface of his times, and thought of further conquests, he 
had his hope of India. The wealth which it was known to pos- 
sess, the abundance of its natural products, and the variety of 
its climate, made it an object of military ambition. Alexander 
the Great was the first European successful enough to realize 
the dream of Indian conquest. "When he led his army from the 

* Pocoke, " India in Greece " (London, 1832), p. 68. This author has ex- 
ceeded all others in tracing the wonderful parallel between Greece and India 
in religion and language. 



INDIA IN HISTORY. 



43 





SILVER COIN OF ALEXANDER I. 



Dardanelles southward and then eastward, and never rested 
until he reached the bank of the Indus, it was the visit of one 
Aryan brother to another, after many centuries of separation. 
It was warfare, but it was that of brothers. 

In b.c. 327 Alexander the Great entered India and began his 
campaign for its conquest. He had no doubt studied the coun- 
try in the writings of Hekataios of Miletos (b.c 549-486), He- 
rodotus (b.c 450), and Ktesias (b.c 401). He was determined 
that his sword should conquer India. He reached Orthostaana, 
the modern Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, and planned for a 
campaign of triumph. He divided his army into two great col- 
umns. Taking one himself, and putting the other in charge of 
his most trusted subordinate, they came down through the Khai- 
bar and other difficult passes, and spread out their army on the 
plains of the Panjab in the hottest season of the year. Taxiles, 
Abisares, and Porus ruled over a large part of the Panjab. Porus, 
the ruler over three hundred cities, met Alexander with 4000 
cavalry and 50,000 foot. Alexander fought him and won the 
battle of Jhelam in April or May, b.c 326. His victory cast all 
northwestern India at his feet. Alexander built here two cities, 
one south of the Jhelam, and the other on the north. The one 
on the south was called Nikaia, and is identified in the ruins of 
the present Mong. The city on the north, which the conqueror 
called Bukephala, after his favorite horse, was built on the site 
of the present Jalalpur.* 

Alexander's men refused to proceed farther into the interior. 
He accordingly followed the Indus down to the sea, and then 
upward through "the burning Gedrosian deserts of Biluchis- 
tan," to his Persian capital, Susa. After Alexander's death the 



* Lethbridge, " Short Manual of the History of India," pp. 163 ff. 



44 INDIRA. 

dream of Indian conquest by the Greeks was dissipated. No 
later Greek dared to engage in a similar campaign. The slender 
hold of Seleukos on the Panjab was maintained in the form of 
an alliance with Chandra Gupta, rather than as a direct control. 
The same relationship continued after the death of these two 
rulers. The great Asoka, grandson of Chandra Gupta, and An- 
tiochus, the grandson of Seleukos, were united as allied kings. 
Later, the rulers of Bactria, a country on the northwest of the 
Himalayas, whose government was founded by the Greeks, in- 
vaded India with desperate energy. The Greco-Bactrian kings 
combined much of the genius of the Greek with that of the 
Hindu. They penetrated farther into India than Alexander had 
carried his sword, and between b.c. 181 and 161 reached as far 
eastward as Oudh and as far south as Sind and Cutch. 

But these conquests never assumed the form of a regular gov- 
ernment. The invasions were not followed by direct and perma- 
nent results in the form of laws and dynasties. The Indian, on 
his own soil, was always too strong for the Greek away from 
home. In an indirect way there remained traces of Greek cult- 
ure. The Greeks bequeathed to India a higher knowledge of 
astronomy than it had ever possessed. The architectural remains 
of Buddhist temples built before the Christian era show the in- 
fluence of the Greek builder, while the sculptures of the Indian 
artists which have survived to this day prove the refined taste 
of the Greek. Constant additions are made in the Panjab to 
the archaeological treasures emanating from this period of Greek 
influence. The Bactro-Greek coins in use in India were numer- 
ous, and are still coming to the light. In this field Prinsej) has 
been the most industrious gleaner.* 

While Alexander's stay and that of his successors from both 
Syria and Scythia was brief, it is now a matter of knowledge 
that the Greek letters and language were understood in north- 
ern India and in Kabul as late as the second century of our era. 
The lately discovered coins furnish the incontestable proof. It 
need not surprise if, later, other monumental remains will con- 
firm the same fact on a much larger scale. \ 

* Compare his " Indian Antiquities." 2 vols. London, 1858. 
t Gardner, " The Coins of the Greek and Scythian Kings of Bactria and India 
in the British Museum," p. liii. London, 1880. 



INDIA IN HISTORY. 45 

VII. — The Scythian Invasion. 

B.C. 100-A.D. 500. 

Not far from the original home of the Aryan race, on the 
border land of Persia and northwestern India, a great body of 
warriors united and set out in search of conquest. They have 
passed into history as Scythians. They speedily put an end to 
the Bactro-Greek kingdom, and marched down through the great 
northwestern pass into India. Wherever they found traces of 
the Greeks they obliterated them, and on the ruins of the Bactro- 
Greek colonies in the Panjab they reared a great kingdom. This 
was about the beginning of the Christian era. The celebrated 
Scythian, King Kanishka, became a zealous Buddhist, carried on 
great wars, and consolidated an empire extending from Agra 
and Sind in the south to Yarkand and Khokand north of the 
Himalayas.* 

Strong efforts were made by the native Indian kings to break 
up the Scythian kingdom, and drive the hated people out of the 
country. King Vikramaditya, in b.c. 57, was the most celebrated 
of the Indian opponents. He was distinguished for wisdom in 
the council, for profound learning, and for heroism in the field. 
Salivahana, in a.d. 78, followed him in patriotic warfare. But 
both were unsuccessful. The Scythians were reinforced by new 
arrivals. For five centuries the strife went on, and it was only 
about a.d. 500 that the Scythian kingdom was broken up, and 
the Aryans already in India were permitted to continue their 
rule over the country. 

VIII. — The Hindu Supremacy. 

a.d. 500-977. 

The rule of the native Hindus in India continued about five 
hundred years. During this period there were wars, great and 
small, between competing kingdoms, with occasional invasions 
from the northwest. The land was seldom, if ever, at peace. 
The boundary -lines of the kingdoms constantly varied with suc- 
cess or defeat in warfare. In the northwest of India the terri- 
tory was governed by Kajput princes. They ruled the country 



* Hunter, " Brief History of the Indian People," pp. 80 ff. 



46 



INDIKA. 



along the valley of the Indus and the upper waters of the Jara- 
na.* The great central north, the classic theatre of the Aryan 
period, had its capital at Kanauj. The northeastern country, 
comprising the lower valley of the Ganges, or much of the pres- 
ent Bengal, from Behar down to the mouth of the Ganges, was 
under the control of three powerful dynasties in succession — 
the Yidyu, the Pala, and the Senas— the last of which defied all 
opposition until overrun, finally, by the Mohammedan conquer- 
ors, a.d. 1203. 

The Yindhya mountains, which run east and west across India, 
dividing the northern from the southern half, were occupied 

chiefly by the fragments of 
the rude aboriginal tribes. 
On the west, near the coast 
of Bombay, was the pow- 
erful kingdom of Malwa. 
Southern India was cov- 
ered principally by the four 
great kingdoms of Chera, 
Chola, Pandya, and Vija- 
yanagar. Here was the 
powerful abode of the abo- 
riginal or Dravidian popu- 
lation, who still speak for 
the most part the Tamil 
language. The kingdom of 
Pandya had its capital at 
Madura ; Chola, at Comba- 
conum and Tanjor ; and 
Chera at Talkad,in Mysore. 
There have been no kings, outside of China, whose dynasty 
was of such long continuance as these. Their protracted ex- 
istence is attributable to remoteness from the points of invasion. 
The Pandya dynasty numbered one hundred and sixteen kings, 
and extended, approximately, from the seventh century before 
Christ down to a.d. 1304. The Chera kingdom had a dynastic 
line of fifty kings, and Chola one of sixty-six. 

The most modern of the four Hindu kingdoms was Vijayana- 




lota (drinking-vessel), old brass, 

HINDU. 



* Hunter, " Brief History of the Indian People," pp. 100, 101. 



INDIA IN HISTORY. 47 

gar, or JSTarsingha. It existed from a.d. 1118 to 1565. Its cap- 
ital " can still be traced within the Madras district of Bellary, 
on the right bank of the Tungabhadra Eiver, where there are to 
be seen extensive ruins of temples, fortifications, tombs, and 
bridges, haunted by hyenas and snakes. For at least three cent- 
uries the kingdom of Vijayanagar dominated over the southern 
part of the Indian triangle." * It was one of the descendants of 
the royal family of this kingdom who granted to the English the 
site of Madras, in 1639, and thus laid the foundation of the 
British empire in India. 

No general description of the kingdoms and rulers of In- 
dia at this period can present an adequate picture of the 
real state of the country. "While there were large kingdoms 
which had been able to perpetuate themselves for many cen- 
turies, there were many smaller ones which defied all the 
power of the larger ones to conquer and absorb them. The 
following are the ancient Hindu states, large and small, of this 
period. Our list begins with the north and closes with the south : 

1. Magadha. 10. Manvar. 

2. Malwa. 11. Sind. 

3. Gujarat. 12. Kashmir. 

4. Mevvar. 13. Pandya Kingdom of Madura, 

5. Kanauj. 14. Chola of Kanchipuran. 

6. Benares. 15. Sera of Travancore. 

7. Mithila. 16. Balala of Dwara Samudra. 

8. Delhi. 17. Warangal. 

9. Ajmir. 18. Pacthun— Salivahana. 

IX. — The Afghan ok Mohammedan Dynasties in India. 

a.d. 996-1526. 

The whole Mohammedan period in India extends from the 
first successful inroad by Sabaktigin, a.d. 996, down to the 
break-up of the Mogul empire through the capture of Delhi by 
Nadir Shah, in 1740. But the Mogul empire, because of its 
peculiar history and specific name, while thoroughly Moham- 
medan, deserves separate treatment. The Afghan rulers began 
their conquests a.d. 977. They were succeeded by the Mogul 
emperors, the first of whom, Babar, by the second battle of 

* Hunter, " Brief History of the Indian People," p. 116. 



48 INBIKA. 

Panipat, founded the Mogul empire, which lasted two hundred 
and twenty-two years, and astonished the world by its achieve- 
ments alike in war and peace. The Afghans did not occupy 
merely the territory now known as Afghanistan, but were a 
group of fierce and powerful tribes inhabiting the mountain 
regions of Ghor, and other great stretches of territory bordering 
on Kabul and Persia.* They were originally fire-worshippers, 
but, having been conquered by the Mohammedan warriors, be- 
came zealous propagators of Islam. They loved warfare. They 
looked upon India as their proper field of battle, and gave 
themselves no rest until they had crossed the Indus, planted 
their banner on the walls of ancient Delhi, and founded dynas- 
ties which furnish a catalogue of thirty-four kings. 

There are four classes of Mohammedans in India. 1. The 
Sayyids, who claim to be of the family of Mohammed. 2. The 
Moguls, descendants of the Tartar conquerors of India. 3. The 
Pathans, or Afghans, whose title is Khan. 4. The Shaiks — all 
who do not belong to the three former divisions. 

There were seven Afghan dynasties which invaded and ruled 
India : 

A.I). 

I. The Ghaznivides 996-1152. 

II. The Ghorians . 1153-1206. 

III. The Slave Kings 1206-1288. 

IV. The House of Khilji 1288-1321. 

V. The House of Tnghlak 1321-1412. 

VI. The Sayyids 1412-1450. 

VII. The House of Lodi 1450-1526. 

The history of these royal families is not surpassed for daring, 
for wisely planned campaigns, for contrasts between lowly origin 
and great honor, and for all the varieties which enter into bloody 
Avarfare. Mohammed of Ghazni, descended from the slave Sa- 
baktigin, ruled thirty-three years, invaded India seventeen times, 
and spent twenty-five years in fighting. He laid the founda- 
tions of the Afghan rule in India. The great Mogul chief, 
Changiz Khan, whose broad empire extended from the wall of 
China westward to the Yolga, began an Indian invasion a.d. 
1217, but was stopped by the Indus, and never reached Delhi. 
Tamerlane (Timur Lene) invaded India, reaching Delhi in 1398. 



Pope, " Text-book of Indian History," pp. 50 if. 



INDIA IN HISTORY. 



49 




HINDU CARVING— BLOODTHIRSTY GOD BHAIRUB. 



His massacre of the population of Delhi is one of the most 
cruel and bloody deeds even in the dark annals of Indian war- 
fare. 

Among the characteristics of this period was the light in 
which each invader looked upon the rule founded by his prede- 
cessor. ]STo sooner was one invading dynasty founded than it 
became a bitter struggle to contend, on the one hand, against 
the native Hindu population and patriotic chiefs, and, on the 
other, against other invaders, who came in from the northwest, 
4 



50 



INDIRA. 




TAMERLANE. 



and proposed to take possession of the country and occupy the 
throne. Delhi or Agra was always regarded as the one object 
of conquest. Either, as the case might be, was the royal city, 

and he who took either Delhi or Agra 
was conqueror and ruler. Thus Delhi 
or Agra was the seat of government for 
three hundred and twenty years, or 
from 1206 to 1526. Further, while some 
of the rulers were revengeful and blood- 
thirsty, others were humane, fond of 
learning, and promoted the arts of peace. 
But the latter class was small. The 
peaceful ruler was only an occasional 
star in the black and ill-boding Indian 
firmament. As the throne was generally 
won by blood, it was necessary to retain 
it by the same means. 
"Women often played an important part, as they have always 
done in Oriental life, whether in camp or court. With all the 
subjection of woman by the Quran, the Mohammedan conquer- 
ors found all their courage and ingenuity taxed to outwit the 
counter - schemes of gifted women. Only once, however, did a 
woman reach the throne of Delhi, and rule in her own name. 
This was Eaziya, who reigned from a.d. 1236 to 1239. She was 
clad in tunic and cap, like a man, and daily sat on her throne, 
and administered justice to all who applied for it. A chief re- 
belled against her rule, defeated her in battle, and took her pris- 
oner. But she conquered him at last by winning his affections 
and marrying him. A rebellion of her nobles, however, put an 
end to the joint-rule of herself and her husband.* 

X. — The Mogul Emperoks. 

a.d. 1524-1857. 

The Mogul empire furnishes the most romantic and dazzling 
picture in the history of Asiatic dominion. Six of the rulers 
were among the most gifted of any land who ever held a sceptre. 
For many centuries the supreme effort had been to retain the 
rule won by violence. Even after the Mogul domination had 



Pope, " Text-book of Indian History," p. 66. 



INDIA IN HISTORY. . 51 

begun, the struggle for the displacement of the emperor was of- 
ten violent and unnatural. The rebellion of the son against 
his father, and the seizing upon the throne, and the imprison- 
ment of the father in a palace, were characteristics of this won- 
derful dynasty. 

The history of the Mogul empire consists of two general pe- 
riods. The former extends from the conquest of Lahor by 
Babar, a.d. 1526, to the beginning of the decline, a.d. 1707. This 
was the brilliant period of rise, expansion, and splendor. The 
second period consists of a steady and fatal decadence, from 
a.d. 1707 to a.d. 1857. 

Babar, the founder of the Mogul empire, was, on his father's 
side, the sixth in descent from Tamerlane the Tartar, and, on his 
mother's side, from a Mogul connected with the tribe of Changiz 
Khan. His real name was Zahir-ud- din -Mohammed — "The 
Light of the Faith." He assumed the title of Padshah, a Persian 
word signifying king. This term became the permanent title 
of the Mogul emperors. So soon as he had developed his mar- 
vellous qualities as a warrior he was called Babar, the Lion — the 
name by which he has always been known in histor} T . He suc- 
ceeded his father as king of Ferghana, on the Jaxartes, and when 
forty-four years old, or a.d. 1526, he came down into India at the 
head of his mighty hosts — 

" Like Indus, through the mountains came down the Muslim ranks, 
And town-walls fell before them as flooded river-banks." 

The Great Mogul Emperors. 



A.I>. 



I. Babar . . .' 1536-1530. 

II. Humayun 1530-1556. 

III. Akbar . 1556-1605. 

• IV. Jahangir 1605-1627. 

V. Shah Jahan 1637-1658. 

VI. Aurangzeb (or Alamgir I.) . 1658-1707. 

The Lesser Mogul Emperors. 

A.T>. 

VII. Shah Alam 1 1707-1712. 

VIII. Jahandar Shah 1712-1713. 

IX. Farukhshir 1713-1719. 

X. Rafl-ud-darajat . . 1719-Feb. 

XI. Rafi-ud-daula 1719-May. 

XII. Mohammed Shah 1719-1748. 



52 INDIRA. 

A.I). 

XIII. Ahmad Shah 1748-1754. 

XIV. Alamgirll 1754-1759. 

XV. Shah Alam II 1759-1806. 

XVI. Akhar II 1806-1837. 

XVII. Mohammed Bahadur 1837-1857. 

These two groups of Mogul' emperors differ from each other 
in all the great qualities which distinguish the wise and mighty 
ruler from the weak and cruel occupant of the throne. While 
the first six were distinguished for great ability as military lead- 
ers and civil administrators, the last eleven, with rare exceptions, 
were marked by all the inferior characteristics of a declining 
imperial line. 

A striking parallel in European history is furnished in the 
Carlovingian dynasty. Pepin, who laid the foundation of the 
broad Frankish empire, may be properly compared with Babar, 
the founder of the Mogul empire. Charlemagne, the son of 
Pepin, has his parallel in Akbar, whose reign was by far the 
most brilliant of all the Mogul rulers. The Mogul line, how- 
ever, continued strong, and worthy of its founder, much longer 
than the Carlovingian. The three successors of Akbar were great 
rulers, while those of Charlemagne declined in mental quality 
and moral force until they became only impotent and formal 
instruments of government, always at the mercy of the Papacy 
or intriguing courtiers. When the brilliant reign of the six 
Mogul rulers terminated with Aurangzeb, and the new and 
feebler group began with Shah Alam I., the Mogul empire was 
strikingly similar to that of the Frankish empire under Oharles 
the Fat. With the Mogul empire as with the Frankish, it was 
only a question of time when the great fabric, created and con- 
solidated by genius, should fall to pieces through weakness in 
the representative of the government. 

The aggregate reigns of the greater Mogul emperors amounted 
to one hundred and eighty-three years. In all the history of 
hereditary rule there is no instance where a reigning family 
possessed its original strong qualities during such a lengthy pe- 
riod. There are instances where a family has been represented 
by several richly endowed members. The house of Napoleon 
Buonaparte is remarkable for the large number of gifted mem- 
bers. American history, as is proved by the family of John 



INDIA IN HISTORY. 53 

Adams, is not without similar illustrations. But the great Mogul 
dynasty founded by Babar has no equal in the annals of men in 
the rare combination of long reigns and capable rulers. These 
men retained many of the rude and fierce qualities which dis- 
tinguished the family while yet obscure, far beyond the north- 
western boundary of India. They never became thoroughly 
Indian. But some of them acquired strong Indian tastes, and 
all learned how to govern the Indian mind, and attach soldiers 
to them by ties stronger than life itself. 

The colors in this wonderful picture of Mogul rule are very 
vivid. The conquests take the first place. When the. central 
government was established in Delhi and Agra, each empe- 
ror endeavored to rule over a realm larger than that of his 
father. ]STo danger was too great for an emperor to engage 
in. Even single combat was not shunned. The leading of a 
forlorn hope was the pastime of a Mogul emperor. One, for ex- 
ample, at the head of a desperate force of three hundred, faced a 
strong body of hostile troops, fought like a lion, gained a brill- 
iant victory, and saved his army and his empire. 

All the six great Mogul emperors were fearless on the battle- 
field. Such an example was of incalculable influence over an army. 
The soldiers of each Mogul emperor acquired a marvellous fear- 
lessness, and gained the popular fame of invincibility. Wherever 
the Mogul rulers went they carried victory with them. Wot sat- 
isfied with conquering all the foes along the valley of the Jamna 
and the Ganges, they became masters of the northern half of 
India. The} 7 even looked beyond, for victory in the south. They 
crossed the midway barrier of the Yindhya Mountains, burst 
down into the plains of the southern half of the inverted Indian 
pyramid, and swept all opposition before them. Some of the 
Hindu thrones, which had defied all enemies from time imme- 
morial, now fell before them like creations of a clay. In due 
time all India, with merely nominal exceptions, lay in their 
power. From the vale of Kashmir in the north to Mysore in 
the south, they ruled with skill and a firm grasp. The waters 
of the Bay of Bengal washed their eastern boundary, while 
the surf of the Indian Ocean beat against their western coast. 
Foreign rulers heard of the splendor of the Mogul court, 
and sent nobles as ambassadors, with rich gifts and long-drawn 
flatteries. 



54 INDIKA. 

The way the Mogul rulers governed their remote possessions 
was peculiar, though a wise, and perhaps the only successful 
method. They placed governors or princes in possession of the 
tributary thrones, and gave them almost supreme power. An- 
nual tribute had to be levied for the general treasury. But 
frequently the native prince would rebel, and, at the head of a 
large army, assert his independence. Then the Mogul army was 
needed to put an end to the mutiny. The emperors, therefore, 
were nearly always on the march. Their chief palace was the tent, 
far remote from the jewelled walls of the palaces of Delhi and 
Agra. The real court, therefore, like that of Caesar, Constantine, 
Charlemagne, and, to some extent, of Charles Y., was not in set- 
tled capitals, but itinerant, on the battle-field or the line of the long 
and hazardous march. The constant study was either to crush 
a rebellious army or to add a new province to the great empire. 

While war was the chief occupation of the six great Mogul 
emperors, it was far from being all. Akbar was fond of litera- 
ture, understood Sanskrit, and undertook literary enterprises. 
He openly expressed profound sympathy with other faiths be- 
sides the Mohammedan. He founded a new and second Moham- 
medanism, which he called the " Divine Faith." He studied 
Hindu works of science and religion, and took pleasure in dis- 
cussions between Brahman priests, Mohammedan teachers, Sikh 
gurus, and Eoman Catholic priests. In these scientific and lat- 
itudinarian tastes Jahangir was a devoted imitator. He was an 
Oriental Frederick the Great. He published his own memoirs.* 
At his court he gave cordial welcome to scholars at home and 
of foreign lands, and was as generous in his patronage of relig- 
ions as of the sciences and arts. By some he is supposed to have 
been as much a Christian as a Mohammedan. He carried a ro- 
sary ornamented with figures of Christ and the Virgin, and per- 
mitted two of his nephews to espouse the Christian faith. Prob- 
ably neither faith gave him great concern, except as a helpful 
instrument for government or conquest. Both Agra and Delhi 
were distinguished as centres, of learning and art. The great 
observatory near Delhi is a present witness to the profound 
attention given to astronomy. 

* "Memoirs of the Emperor Jahangir, written by himself, and translated 
from a Persian manuscript by Major David Price." London, 1824; 




m 



INDIA IN HISTORY. 57 

The most enduring effect of the Mogul rule is to be found in 
the architectural monuments still existing in the northern half 
of India, and to some extent in the Nizam's dominions in the 
south. The Taj Mahal, built by Shah Jahan, at Agra, on the 
banks of the Jamna, is not only the most splendid mausoleum 
in existence, but the most beautiful structure in the world. The 
Pearl Mosque, by the same emperor, is a house of worship, in 
white marble, which is not surpassed in the beauty of its pro- 
portions and the skill of its workmanship by any religious edi- 
fice known to architecture. The Great Mosque of Delhi is a 
wonder in stone, distinguished for the boldness of its plan, the 
splendor of its material, and the vastness of its proportions. 
The Palace of Delhi, with its Peacock Throne and far-reaching 




HINDU GOLDSMITH. 



courts, its baths and fountains, its surrounding buildings in mar- 
ble and other fine stone, is still the wonder of India. No one 
can be said to have seen India unless he has entered the majestic 
portal of that palace and lingered amid its blaze of Oriental 
glory in marble softened by arabesques of precious stones. 

Beyond the magnificent architectural remains, the permanent 
effects of the Mogul rule are few. No appreciable impression 
was made on the scientific status of the people. There does not 
seem to have been an increase of taste for popular education. 
Great schools do not appear to have been organized. Learning 
was regarded rather as the ornament of the court than a benef- 
icent means for the elevation and development of the millions. 
The great body of the people never saw in these Mohammedan 

4—2 



58 INDIRA. 

rulers, their armies, or their courtiers qualities sufficiently ad- 
mirable to make them prefer to renounce their faith and adopt 
that of their conquerors. The Hindu population never fell to 
the small number of the Mohammedan, and to this day for every 
four Hindus there is but one Mohammedan. 

Aurangzeb, the last of the great emperors, left an empire which 
no ordinary hand could rule. The old Hindu spirit was discov- 
ering a new opportunity for reassertion/and the bonds which 
held the empire together were growing looser and feebler 
every day. Six of the eleven emperors succeeding Aurangzeb 
were powerless in the hands of a general, Zulfikar-Khan, while 
the remaining five were the mere puppets of schemers. The 
empire was now only a name. Long after England conquered 
India she permitted the descendants of the Moguls to retain a 
nominal sovereignty over the country. The last scion of this 
degenerated line took part with the Sepoys in the mutiny of 
1857. When England crushed out the mutiny, this feeble rem- 
nant of a once proud dynasty sat a prisoner at Delhi, within the 
palace walls of his mighty ancestors, to receive sentence of ban- 
ishment. He died in Eangoon, on November 11, 1862, and was 
buried on the day of his death. The Mohammedans, with all 
their pride of history and faith, paid no attention to the event. 

XI. — The Marhattas. 
a.d. 1650-1818. 

In the year 1577 there was, in the service of the Murteza Nizam 
Shah I., a native prince by the name of Maloji. He was com- 
mander of a body of cavalry. He had a certain prestige among 
his associates, because he was a scion of the ancient family of 
Bhonsla, which had descended from the royal house of Udipur. 
This man was the ancestor of the line of great Marhatta leaders, 
who won some of the most remarkable battles in the history of 
the world, who founded a broad but unsteady kingdom on the 
ruins of the Mogul empire, and who were the most violent and 
intrepid of all the enemies whom England had to conquer on its 
thorny path to the dominion of India. The Mogul empire re- 
ceived its death-blow from the intrepid and revengeful warriors 
whom the descendants of Maloji awoke as by the wand of a 
magician. Who were the Marhattas, and what was their signifi- 




INDIA IN HISTORY. 61 

cance in history ? They represented the elder Hindu race, 
ground down by the long dominion of the Mogul rulers. It 
now reasserted itself, and determined to break the power of their 
empire. It was the old patriotic fervor again flashing out after 
the long darkness. 

The name of the Marhattas is derived from the country where 
they arose— Maharashtra, the Great 
Kingdom. It comprises the hilly re- 
gion of Central India, extending 
from Nagpur, in the east, to the 
western coast, and running along 
the coast from Cambray down to 
Goa. Never did a more rugged race 
of warriors start out in search of 
thrones. In the early Mohammedan 
invasions they fought, in an obscure 
way, against the foreigners. But 
later, when the Mohammedans be- ROBBEK CHIEP KACHAR . 

came rulers of North India, the Ma- 
rhattas became brave soldiers in their armies and wise civilians 
in the administration of the government. 

Shahji, the son of Maloji, was born a.d. 1627. He was the 
real founder of the Great Marhatta power. He distinguished 
himself by brilliant achievements on many fields of battle. He 
prepared the way for the wonderful military triumphs of Sivaji, 
one of the greatest warriors of history. The career of Sivaji 
abounds in romance. Through the quiet teaching of a Hindu 
preceptor, his mind became early imbued with a desire to drive 
the Mohammedans out of India. He took delight in the mythol- 
ogy of his people, and regarded himself of royal blood and wor- 
thy of a great throne. His imagination revelled in the prospect 
of a mighty empire. He was not taught the refinements of even 
a general education, and never learned to write his name. A 
firm faith in his own religion, and an intimate knowledge of all 
the resources of Oriental warfare, were his sole acquirements 
when, with a fearless spirit, he went forth for empire. When 
only nineteen years of age he captured the hill-fort of Tornea, 
near Puna, and thenceforward war to the knife was his meat 
and drink. 

Sivaji was outwardly friendly to the Mogul emperor, but 




62 INDIRA. 

sought the first opportunity to betray his interests. In his 
march to power, no falsehood or treachery was too base for 
him, if he could gain new territory. While his own hands were 
red with the blood of his enemies, and he did not hesitate to 

slaughter a strong foe in private, he was 
humane to his captives taken in war. 
His method in warfare was that of the 
freebooter. He stands out as the greatest 
raider of whom we have any account in 
history. He had a large army at com- 
mand, which burst down from its retreat 
in the Western Ghats, crushed proud and 
victorious foes, captured large booty, lied 

AN OUTCAST H IN DU, quickly back ™ in and waite d its time 

BEKAK. ^ J ° ' 

for another destructive demonstration. 
His soldiers were planters in seed-time ; then they left for bloody 
warfare, and only came back to be reapers in harvest. At all 
other times they were on horseback, with deadly weapons, ready 
for any daring enterprise. 

Sivaji assumed the title of Kaja, or King, in 1664. In the 
following year he joined the Mogul armies against the inde- 
pendent state of Bijapur, but afterwards rebelled, and gained 
new power by victories in the Karnatic* He was fearless in 
battle,, and a master in Indian subterfuges. No scheme was 
too intricate to escape his adroitness. For example, he secured 
admittance to the house of his enemy, Shayistah Khan, by a 
mock marriage procession. But his turn came at last to lose. 
The fortunes of war turned against him. He died a.d. 1680. 

With the death of Sivaji, and that of his feeble son Sambhaji, 
the line of Marhatta kings died out. But the Marhatta power 
still continued its warfare for dominion. The line of Sivaji was 
succeeded in 1718 by the Peshwas, an hereditary office originat- 
ing with an able Brahman minister of the court of Sambhaji. 
The Peshwas now began to organize and build up the Marhatta 
confederacy, with Puna as the capital. Great aggressive wars 
were carried on, and, of all the forces which triumphed over 
the decaying Mogul empire, the five Marhatta powers, with the 
Peshwa at their head, were the most conspicuous gainers. 

* Mackenzie, " Romantic Land of Hind," p. 257. 



INDIA IN HISTORY. 63 

The English first came into conflict with the Marhattas in 
1775, when a war was waged with them for seven years. The 
Marhattas had an intense hatred of the English, and seemed to 
regard them as their powerful competitors for the control and 
government of India. They had with them, as their allies, the 
great Haidar Ali and the Nizam. Under the wise administra- 
tion and careful planning of Warren Hastings, the English, 
while not directly victorious, were saved from hopeless disaster. 
The Treaty of Salbai was acceptable to all parties, for all alike 
were glad to rest from arms. 

But the Marhattas were steadily gaining, and during the last 
quarter of the eighteenth century they made great advances. 
By the beginning of the nineteenth century the Marhatta con- 
federacy numbered forty millions of citizens, and extended from 
Delhi in the north to the Kaveri in the south. It possessed an 
army of three hundred thousand men, unsurpassed for daring 
in the annals of warfare. The French combined their interests 
with the Marhattas, believing this to be the best way of destroy- 
ing the English domination in India. It required four great wars, 
covering a period of forty-four years, or down to 1819, for the 
English to completely conquer and possess the Marhatta country. 
Lord Wellesley, Warren Hastings, and Generals Lake, Munro, and 
Pritzler immortalized themselves, and reflected new glory on 
the English name, by the victorious part they took in this great 
and triumphant struggle. 

Almost all traces of the Marhatta rulers have passed away. 
In Gwalior, Indore, and Baroda the only scions of this once 
great power now remain. They rule by native princes with only 
the semblance of authority, but are closely watched by English 
Residents, and are harmless. Never did a power which had arisen 
to such great possessions, or had achieved such memorable victo- 
ries, and presented such able chiefs, decline and die with so few 
traces of moral greatness. Their one great aim was conquest, 
plunder, and the Mogul thrones. Not one Marhatta ruler can be' 
found who possessed those high moral qualities which took pleas- 
ure in educating, refining, and making happy the people. One has 
only to see the condition of India — a poor suffering prisoner in 
the hands of a bloodthirsty army of freebooters, to measure 
both the timeliness and the beneficence of the English coming. 



64 INDIKA. 



XII. — The Europeans in India. 

THE PORTUGUESE. 

For many centuries there was but little intercourse between 
India and Europe. While the invasion of Alexander the Great 
had awakened in Greece, and in the more advanced European 
centres west of Greece, an interest in the farther East, this in- 
terest had long since died out. The collapse of the Greek Re- 
publics and the Roman Empire made India a sealed book to 
Europe until the revival of commerce towards the close of the 
Middle Ages. 

The first direction in which this new spirit of discovery and 
commerce manifested itself was the search for India by an 
ocean pathway. Columbus had no other thought, when he lost 
sio-ht of the coast of Spain, than to reach India by a westward 
course. He even carried with him a letter to the great Khan 
of Tartary. Indeed, Columbus died with the full belief that 
the new land he had discovered was the East Indies, which he 
had set out to reach. 

The first traveller in modern times to penetrate India was 
the celebrated Yenetian Marco Polo, whose experiences there 
excited universal 'attention in Europe. 

The Portuguese, however, were the first modern discoverers 
both to reach India and to take possession of a portion of the 
country. No sooner had Portugal risen to great importance 
as a nation than it took a profound interest in the discovery 
of distant lands. Prince Henry, son of John I. of Portugal, 
and his queen, the English princess Blanche of Lancaster, lived 
on the coast, that they might see the outgoing fleets. Henry 
promoted enterprises for distant seas, and of him it has been 
sung, 

" The Genius, then, 
Of Navigation, that in hopeless sloth 
Had slumbered on the vast Atlantic deep 
For idle ages, starting, heard at last 
The Lusitanian Prince, who, heaven-inspired 
To love of useful glory, roused mankind, 
And in unbounded commerce mixed the world." 

Madeira was discovered in 1420, the Cape de Yerde Islands 



INDIA IN HISTORY. 65 

in 1460, and the Cape of Good Hope in 1486. The Portuguese 
were thus slowly finding their way down the coast of Africa, 
and getting ready to reach the distant shore of India. This 
great end was reached by Vasco da Gama, in 1198, when he 
dropped anchor at Calicut, on ,the southwestern coast., He was 
the discoverer of a sea-route to India around the African con- 
tinent. This one act put the whole trade between Europe and 
the East into the hands of the Portuguese, who retained it a 
long time.* 

Cabral arrived in 1500. In 1503 Alfonso Albuquerque, the 
greatest name connected with the Portuguese rule in India, 
arrived at the head of three expeditions. His mind was less 
devoted to commerce than to conquest. f Two years later, Fran- 
cisco da Almeida arrived, with a large fleet and fifteen thousand 
men under his command. He was the first Portuguese Governor- 
General and Yiceroy of India. From a.d. 1500 to 1600, the 
Portuguese had the undisputed right of European trade with 
India. They had stations extending from Ormuz, at the Per- 
sian Gulf, all the way down the Indian coast to Ceylon, and far 
across to Malacca and the adjacent islands. They had thirty 
factories, and a coast-line of twelve thousand miles. Their ves- 
sels plied through all the neighboring seas. Their soldiers were 
famed for bravery and skill. Their Jesuit missions, with Francis 
Xavier at their head, achieved a record which made them the 
pride of Rome and of every true Roman Catholic throughout 
the world. 

Towards the latter part of the sixteenth century, or in 1580, 
the Portuguese kingdom was united with that of Spain, and 
Spanish interests now predominated. Portugal lost abroad as 
well as at home. Through the English and the Dutch, who were 
now in India, and carrying on an extensive trade, the Portu- 
guese trade declined. 

All that now remains of Portuguese power in India are Goa, 
Daman, and Diu, with a population of half a million, and a ter- 
ritory of four hundred square miles. Nearly all the Portuguese 
are of mixed blood, half Indian and half Portuguese. About 



* Lethbridge, " History of India," pp. 245 ff. 

t Macpherson, " The History of European Commerce with India," p. 24. 
London, 1812. 
5 



66 INDIRA. 

twenty thousand of these half-breeds are in Bengal, and thirty 
thousand in Bombay and the environs. 



THE DUTCH. 

The Dutch followed the Portuguese to India. So soon as 
Holland threw off the Spanish yoke her people turned their 
attention to maritime discovery, and commerce with remote 
lands. They endeavored to find a way to India by sailing 
around the northern coasts of Asia and Europe. Failing here, 
they tried the route around Africa. Houtman was the first 
Dutchman to reach the Eastern seas, a.d. 1594. Commercial 
relations were established with the Archipelago. Collision with 
the Portuguese soon took place, and the Dutch were everywhere 
masters. They expelled the Portuguese from the Molucca Isl- 
ands. This brought on a war between the two nations. The 
Dutch were victorious. They expelled the Portuguese from 
Amboyna and Tidor in 1605, and, until superseded by the Eng- 
lish, controlled the commerce of the Eastern seas. In 1610 the 
Dutch founded the colony of Batavia ; in 1610 they drove the 
Portuguese out of Malacca and took possession of it ; in 1656 
they took Ceylon from the same rulers, and became masters of 
a rich trade with that island ; and in 1660 they took Nagapa- 
tarn from the Portuguese, and established an important settle- 
ment there. The other Dutch settlements in India were at 
Suclras, Pulicat, and Bimlipatam, all of which fell into English 
hands before the close of the eighteenth century. 

THE DANES. 

The Danes possessed two settlements in India, both of w T hich 
have become immortal in the missionary history of the world. 
One of these was Tranquebar, in South India, and the other was 
Serampore. Tranquebar has become famous throughout the 
world as the most thoroughly Christianized territory in India. 
Here labored the first missionaries to India — Ziegenbalg, from 
1706 to 1719, and Fabricius, from 1739 to 1791. Schwartz, also, 
made Tranquebar his home for eleven years. Serampore, in the 
north, became the centre of the gigantic operations of Carey, 
Marshman, and Ward. Both these settlements were sold to the 
English i n 1815. 



INDIA m HISTORY. 67 

THE FRENCH. 

The French organized East India Companies as early as 1604. 
But they had their eye on India at a much earlier date. From 
the fourteenth century they had dared to roam over all known 
seas. In 1365 the people of Dieppe had establishments in Sen- 
egal and on the coast of Guinea. Canada, Brazil, and India fol- 
lowed in rapid succession. Colbert was largely instrumental in 
promoting settlements in India. Mazarin, when about to die, 
said to Louis XIV. : 

"Sire, I owe you everything, but I acquit myself fully by 
leaving you Colbert."* 

It can be truthfully said that Richelieu and Colbert directed 
the splendid colonial enterprises of Louis XIV. French interest 
in India was probably augmented by the travels of Tavernier, a 
jeweller of Paris, who was born in 1605. He made no less than 
six journeys to India for the purchase of precious stones, and 
published interesting accounts of his observations, f 

The first important French settlement in India was at Surat, 
a little north of Bombay. This was the humble beginning of a 
scheme which developed into a gigantic French undertaking for 
the establishment of an Indian empire. We next hear of the 
French in the south, where they captured two settlements from 
the Dutch, and built the important city of Pondicherri. The 
Dutch, however, captured all three places, but lost them again 
by the Peace of Ryswick, in 1697, when the settlements were 
restored to the French. 

The two greatest names in connection with the French rule in 
India were Bourdonnais and Dupleix. The former was master 
of the naval forces, while Dupleix commanded the land troops. 
Dupleix was the first to see that India could be conquered only 
by domestic dissension. He saw that there was no unity, and 
that to array the native kingdoms still further against each other 
was the key to the conquest of the whole country. $ Clive, later, 
caught Dupleix's secret, practised upon it, and by it gave India 
to Britain. 

* Henry Bicmne, "Dupleix," p. 3. Paris, 1881. 

t Ball, "The Diamonds, Coal, and Gold of India," p. 2. 

X Holmes, "A History of the Indian Mutiny," p. 3. London, 1883. 



68 INDIKA. 

There was no harmony between Dupleix and Bourdonnais. 
Each achieved great victories, but neither utilized the genius or 
success of the other. They met, on July 8th, 1746, and Bourdon- 
nais addressed these words to Dupleix : 

" We ought to regard one another as equally interested in the 
progress of events, and to work in concert. For my part, sir, I 
devote myself to you beforehand, and swear to you a perfect 
confidence." 

"Whichever was to blame, the result was no " concert." Ma- 
dras was captured from the English by the Erench, but Bourdon- 
nais afterwards allowed them to ransom it by paying a large 
price. The great French opportunity was thus lost. The Eng- 
lish reaped every advantage. Bourdonnais returned to France, 
was regarded as a traitor, was thrown into the Bastille for three 
years, and died in 1753 of a broken heart. 

Dupleix now remained in India, and was supreme in the man- 
agement of French interests. He enjoyed temporary success. 
Madras was recaptured, and the French flag floated again from 
Fort St. George. The name of Dupleix became renowned in 
India and throughout Europe. But Europe had something tp 
say. The Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle restored the new French pos- 
sessions to England, and Dupleix was again compelled to adopt 
new measures to bring back French prestige throughout India. 
Having early learned the art of arraying the Indian princes 
against one another, he now again exercised his skill in this 
difficult department. He espoused the cause of one chief against 
another, put upon the throne only those whom he could control, 
and became the king-making Warwick of all India. The troops 
of France fought side by side with Indian troops, and always 
the outcome was new territory to the French. The French party 
was triumphant at nearly every court. But after 1751 a great 
change took place in the cause which Dupleix was defending. 

Lawrence had charge of the English forces, but his great ex- 
ecutive officer was Clive. The two worked in perfect harmony. 
Wherever the English fought they won. They had, indeed, well 
learned from the French how to manage the natives of India. 
The second siege of Trichinopoli, in 1752, where the English 
were victors, terminated the career of Dupleix. He left India 
for France in 1754. He died in poverty, and without honor, in 
Paris, in 1764. 



INDIA IN HISTORY. 69 

The French cause was continued with persistence by Lally, 
who arrived in 1758. But it was too late, even had he possessed 
the qualities for successful warfare. The English put an end to 
all hope of French dominion in India by their victory at Wande- 
wash, near Madras, in 1759. Lally returned to France, and was 
beheaded in 1766. Three years afterwards the French East 
India Company came to an end. 

THE ENGLISH. 

"While India was originally entered by the English for com- 
mercial purposes only, warfare of the most heroic and devastat- 
ing character has been necessary to gain and to hold the country. 
Malleson's estimate is low, that from 1746 to 1849 England has 
fought twelve decisive battles in order to win and to hold India. 
The great stages of English supremacy in India are the following : 

I. a.d. 1600-1746. — The first interest awakened in England 
concerning India seems to have arisen from Thomas Stevens, of 
New College, Oxford, who went to Goa in 1597, and whose trav- 
els were afterwards published in England. Other travellers fol- 
lowed him, such as Storey, Newberry, Leedes, and Fitch. These 
men carried a letter from Queen Elizabeth to the Mogul em- 
peror, Akbar. The first practical effect of the reports concern- 
ing India took shape in the British East India Company, which 
was incorporated by Queen Elizabeth on the last day of the six- 
teenth century, or December 31st, 1600. For nearly a century 
and a half, or from 1600 down to 1742, we find this great Com- 
pany gradually assuming larger proportions, getting important 
concessions from the native rulers, growing wealthy, raising an 
army to defend its commercial interests, acquiring large territo- 
rial possessions, and, in wisdom and enterprise, far surpassing all 
other European claimants for supremacy in India. The East 
India Company was really a nation, without the name or the 
formality. 

II. a.d.- 1746-1759. — This was the period of English struggle 
and final triumph. The time was brief, but it was occupied in 
bloody and bitter warfare. The southern half of India was one 
great battle-field. The French and English were the leading 
contestants, and the conflicting interests of native princes were 
used by each of the foreign powers only to aid its own cause. 
England's triumph left the southern half of India in her posses- 



70 INDIKA. 

sion. The scene of war changed, during the last years, to the 
north. Clive, who had saved the south, returned from England 
to save the north. Four other great names were associated with 
him in giving final triumph to English arms and administration 
— Watson, Coote, Forde, and Warren Hastings. The Black Hole 
tragedy, in Calcutta, awakened the wrath of Clive and all the 
English to such an extent that bitter vengeance was sworn. 

This was in 1756. The battle of Plassey was fought June 
23d of the following year. The Indian chief, Siraj ud Daula, 
had 68,000 soldiers, and an immense train of artillery. Clive 
had but 900 European troops, 2100 Sepoys, a few Portuguese, 
and only ten pieces of artillery. He called a council of war. 
Thirteen of his officers voted against a battle, and seven for 
it. Clive withdrew to a grove near by, reflected on the 
emergency, threw the judgment of the council to the winds, 
and fought and won Plassey, the most momentous of all the 
struggles of England for rule in India. Many thousands of 
native troops were slain, but the English loss was only twenty- 
two killed and fifty wounded. This battle gave northern 
India, and therefore all India, to the British crown. 

III. a.d. 1759-1818. — Daring this period the English were 
engaged with frequent hostile forces of the native troops. The 
Marhattas more than once threatened the English supremacy. 
Even a more difficult task was the organization of the civil ad- 
ministration. The East India Company was the actual govern- 
ment. England, as a government, did little more than hold the 
Company to a strict accountability. 

In 1774 a thorough change was made in the general admin- 
istration. Hitherto the governments of Bombay, Madras, and 
Calcutta had been independent presidencies. But in 1773 the 
Regulating Act was adopted, by which a governor-general was 
appointed for all India, and the three presidencies were united 
by a Supreme Council and by a Court of Judicature. This new 
arrangement for the civil government of India has continued, 
with minor changes, down to the present time. The ecclesias- 
tical establishment in India was organized in 1813, by which a 
bishop of Calcutta was appointed, with an archdeacon, and later 
a bishop, in the capital of each presidency. Middleton was the 
first bishop, and Heber, Wilson, and Cotton were his worthy 
successors. 



INDIA IN HISTORY. 



71 



IV. a.d. 1818-1857. — The supremacy of England was now 
apparently complete. But there were three important require- 
ments on which the permanence of English rule depended. The 
first was the safe and wise introduction of reforms ; the second 
was the annexation of contiguous territory and the absorption 




WARREN HASTINGS. 



of its threatening population into submissive subjects ; and the 
third was the ability to conquer one of the most appalling and 
widespread mutinies known in modern times. All these require- 
ments were fully met by the wisdom, justice, and unsurpassed 
heroism of the statesmen and the soldiers who represented Eng- 



72 



INDIKA. 



land in the administration and authority of her Indian affairs. 
During this period of about forty years the army in India was 
engaged in no less than six military expeditions, which, in sev- 
eral instances, assumed the magnitude of formal warfare. The 
eastern frontier was threatened by the Burmese demand, in 
1818, for the cession of Chittagong, Murshidabad, and Dacca. 
The result was a war, which began in 1824, and was successfully 
terminated in 1826 by the cession of an important part of Bur- 
mese territory to England, and the pledge of the Burmese gov- 
ernment " to maintain the relations of amity and peace between 
the two nations." 

In 1852-53 a second war with Burma was carried on, which 
resulted in the firm establishment of British power over, prac- 
tically, the whole of Bur- 
ma. Since then, in 1887, 
a third war with Burma 
has been waged, by which 
the immense territory of 
Burma has been formally 
annexed. England has 
thus become practically 
the ruler of India to the 
Chinese frontier. A war 
w T ith Bhartpur was con- 
ducted in 1826, the result 
of which was a complete 
success. Sind, a depend- 
ency of Kabul, "was con- 
quered in 1843 by Sir 
Charles Napier. The 
Amirs, who had gov- 
erned it, were brought 
as exiles to Benares, and 
put on a pension. The valley of the Indus was now in the 
full possession of the English. The war for Sind, however, 
reflects no credit on the English name. " The feeling then pre- 
vailed," says Pope, " and posterity will deliberately confirm the 
opinion, that the war was unrighteous. It is the one annexation 
upon which the English nation can look with no satisfaction." * 

* " Text-book of Indian History," p. 386. 




FISHERMAN, SUNNI MUSSULMAN, SIND. 



INDIA IN HISTORY. 73 

It became apparent that the great gateway through Afghan- 
istan must be kept secure against invasion. Russia was plan- 
ning, by interference with the native populations, and holding 
them in sympathy, against English security in India. In 184-5 
the first Panjab war broke out, and in 1848 the second. The 
result of the bitter conflict was favorable to England, and in 
1818 the Panjab, which has ever since formed the extreme north- 
western province of British India, was annexed. 

It is difficult to measure the magnitude of this brief period 
of warfare. It was war to the knife. The natives showed no 
mercy whenever they had the English at advantage. But the 
English were equally brave and daring, while their experience 
of over a century in combating native troops gave them an 
acquaintance with their methods which proved of infinite aid. 
In the short space of three years, 1813-4:6, the English fought 
not less than eight great battles, and completely annihilated 
the three armies of Sind, Gwalior, and the Panjab, numbering 
120,000 men. Oudh, a native state which had been under 
English guardianship since 1801, was annexed, by direct order 
from the home government, in 1856. This whole period was in- 
terrupted by few military reverses, while such advances were 
made as caused the British power to be an object of dread by 
every native prince, either within or without the boundary-lines 
of British India. 

V. The Mutiny. — So rapid and profound had been the recent 
advancement of the British rule in India, that it became clear to 
the native mind that unless some great and sudden method of 
resistance should be adopted, it would soon be too late for the 
natives to regain any control over the country. The mutiny of 
1857 was the practical outcome of this widespread apprehension. 
No sufficient cause for it can be found in the English dealing 
with the natives. The lenient spirit had increased steadily. The 
governors - general had been considerate. The argument that 
native officers and privates had, in some instances, been under- 
paid, was only a pretext. The real cause was the determination of 
the natives, strengthened and inflamed by the remaining scions 
of the old princely and royal families, to overthrow the suprem- 
acy of England, and re-establish the native power. Had they 
succeeded, it is safe to say that India would to-day be little bet- 
ter than what it was during the Marhatta carnival of blood. 



74 INDIRA. 

One day in January, 1857, a Laskar in Calcutta asked a Sepoy 
to give him a drink out of his lota, or water-cup.* The Sepoy 
was of high caste, and refused indignantly to grant the request, 
since to allow low-caste lips to touch his cup would violate the 
traditions and prejudices of his caste. When the Laskar saw 
this he replied that the British government was at that time 
making cartridges of the grease of cows and hogs, and that na- 
tive lips would have to be polluted by biting off the ends of the 
cartridges when loading their English guns. The soldier was 
still more indignant. He told this piece of news — whether true 
or not is not known — to others, and it soon spread into far 
circles. That there was force in this argument of the greased 
cartridges being an offence to the caste prejudice of the Hindus, 
can be seen in the later fact that, in a regiment of native troops, 
out of ninety men only five would touch the cartridges.f 

A peculiar system of correspondence was adopted. A soldier 
was sent to a military station with a lotus-flower in his hand. 
This he presented to the chief native officer, who in turn pre- 
sented it to a soldier. This soldier handed it to another, and 
this one to a third, until every soldier had held it in his hand. 
The last soldier to receive and hold it took it to the next station, 
where the same process was gone through. There was profound 
silence. But all understood the deep and dreadful meaning. 
The significance was death to every Englishman. 

The way of reaching the non-military masses was by sending 
out six little cakes of unleavened bread, called chapatties, to the 
chief man of a village.;}: He received them, and sent out six 
others to the chief man of the next village. But little, if any- 
thing, was said. Yet here, too, every one understood the pro- 
found meaning — a great struggle was about to come, and every 
native must do his duty. The religious 'element was aroused. 
Priests went through the country, quietly preaching a crusade 
against the English rulers. 

There were three stages in the mutiny. The first was the 
time of doubt, which lasted from the outbreak at Berhampur, in 
March, 1857, to the siege of Delhi. The second was the decisive 

* Holmes, "A History of the Indian Mutiny," pp. 81, 82. 
f " Parliament Papers," vol. xxv., p. 333. 1859. 
I " Story of tlie Indian Mutiny," p. 21. 



INDIA IN HISTORY. 



75 



event, the siege of Delhi, in September, 1857. The third was 
the conquest of the non-military population, in the province of 
Oudh, closing in January, 1859. < 

The whole history of warfare and insurrection does not pre- 
sent a picture of more bloodthirsty and cruel deeds on the one 
hand, and of more intrepid bravery and innocent suffering on 
the other, than in this brief rebellion of the natives of India 
against their English rulers. The war was confined chiefly to 
the northern half of the Indian triangle. But there was unrest 
in every part of the country. The English did not know whom 
to trust. "War was in the air, from the mountains all the way 
down to the Cape. Over the northern half of India the armies 
of the insurgents swept like a besom of destruction. They held 
in their hand* the very rifles which had been given them, and 
whose use had been taught them, by the English. From Cal- 
cutta in the east to Lahor in the west, the tide of warfare 
ebbed and flowed with varying success. The three hot centres 
of the mutiny were Cawnpore, Lucknow, and Delhi. 

Nana Sahib was the leader of the mutineers, and Sir John 
Lawrence, Sir Henry Lawrence, Sir Henry Havelock, Sir Colin 
Campbell, Sir James Outram, and General Neill were the lead- 
ers of the British forces. The native forces massacred, in 
cold blood, men, women, and 
children. At Cawnpore the 
butchery of the little English 
contingent, with the families, 
surpasses all power of descrip- 
tion. At Lucknow the Eng- 
lish were besieged in the 
Residency, and every day 
they were dying from hun- 
ger, stifling heat, and the shot 
of the enemy. Havelock has- 
tened to the rescue. He and 
Sir James Outram entered the 
city with but two thousand 
men, while the enemy num- 
bered fifty thousand.* Luck- 




STATUE OF SIR JAMES OUTRAM. 



* Dutt, " Historical Studies," vol. ii., p. 393. 



76 INBIKA. 

now was saved, but the cemetery of the Residency tells the 
sad story of the enormous number of the English who died 
during the struggle. Havelock died of d}-sentery in November, 
1857, and his body lies in a garden near where he gave his life 
to his country. He met death with that Christian confidence and 
grandeur which had distinguished his remarkable career. He 
lay upon a rude bed, on the ground, in his tent, ministered to by 
his devoted son only. Among his last words were : 

" I die happy and contented. I have for forty years so 
ruled my life that when death came I might face it without 
fear." 

Of him it was said at Eangoon, by Campbell, the general com- 
manding, when informed that the enemy was approaching one 
of the English posts : 

" Call out Havelock's saints ; they are never drunk, and he is 
always ready." * 

For death, too, Havelock was ready. Taking his whole career 
together, no name stands higher on the long roll of England's 
great commanders than that of Havelock. As a Christian sol- 
dier, he shares with Gordon the highest place in the group of 
men who, in the nineteenth century, have reflected honor on 
the English name by a rare combination of religious fervor and 
martial daring. 

Several important results were reached by the suppression. of 
the great mutiny. One was the termination of the complicated 
relations between the English government and the East India 
Company. The last renewal of the charter granted by Parlia- 
ment was in 1853, for only such period as the government might 
see fit. The number of directors was reduced, their patronage 
for appointments to the civil service was taken away, and ap- 
pointments for offices were henceforth made dependent upon the 
principle of open competition. f In 1858, however, Parliament 
transferred, after long debate, the whole administration of India 
to the Crown, and the East India Company ceased to exist. 

A second great result was, that England learned by the mutiny 
that her government of India was henceforth to depend on 
Christian principles. There was no longer any public sympathy 



* Holmes, " A History of the Indian Mutiny," p. 424. 
t Hunter, " Short History of the Indkn People," p. 211. 



INDIA IN HISTORY. 



77 



with the false religious traditions and prejudices of the natives. 
The earnest Christian spirit of Havelook and the Lawrences 
convinced the world that the highest military quality is consist- 
ent with a deep religious experience. The patriotic spirit of 




THE RESIDENCY AT LTJCKNOW. 



the missionaries in this critical time was remarkable. The mas- 
sacre of missionaries and their families was a part of the great 
price which England paid for her complete victory over the 
mutineers. 

A third great result attained by the suppression of the mu- 



78 INBIKA. 

tiny was the profound and universal conviction among all the 
natives that all further attempts to conquer England in India 
were out of the question. The mutiny had been made with 
unsurpassed energy, and it had utterly failed. No one of judg- 
ment in India now imagines that another effort for independence 
can ever be made, even under the most favorable circumstances. 

VI. The Queen's Proclamation, on assuming the government 
of India, was issued November 1, 1858. It has been called the 
Magna Charta of Indian rights. Complete amnesty was granted 
to all inhabitants of the country, except those who had taken 
direct part in the murder of English people. These few words 
are sufficient to declare the spirit of the entire proclamation : 
"We hold ourselves bound to the natives of our Indian terri- 
tories by the same obligations of duty which bind us to all our 
other subjects." 

For the princes who had remained firm to England during 
the mutiny the Order of the Star of British India was instituted, 
and many natives were rewarded in its different grades. The 
Sanad, or Patent of Nobility, was issued, by which the one 
hundred and fifty-three feudatories of Britain in India were con- 
stituted nobles of the British empire. 

The great representative of English authority at this time was 
Lord Canning, the first viceroy. His measures were of the most 
conciliatory character. He was much abused by the large Eng- 
lish element who advocated retaliatory measures, and the sobri- 
quet of "Clemency Canning" was a favorite term. But his 
unpopularity lasted for a brief season only. The true judgment 
of history is that but for the very course which he adopted the 
peaceful government of the millions of India, from that time to 
the present, could never have been achieved. 

VII. Subsequent Events. — Since the mutiny the development 
of the administration of the government has been wise and rapid. 
Nothing seems to have been neglected to cement the different 
parts of the country and to elevate the condition of the people, 
excepting only the treatment of the questions of opium and in- 
toxicating liquors. Queen Victoria was declared Empress of 
India by the special management of Lord Beacon sfield, the 
premier of the time. Lord Kipon, the viceroy from 1880 to 
1883, attempted a series of reforms calculated to give larger 
liberty to the native aspirations. The repeal of the Vernacular 



INDIA IN HISTORY. 



79 



Press Act removed the last restraints on the free discussion of 
public questions.* Lord Eipon's scheme of local self - govern- 
ment has opened the way for a new era of political life to the 
natives of the country, while his appointment of an Education 




THE MEMORIAL WELL AT CAWNPORE. 



Commission has resulted in a great advance of popular educa- 
tion. Lord Bipon, though a Roman Catholic, enjoyed the favor 
and confidence of the whole bodv of Protestant missionaries. 



* Hunter, "Brief History of the Indian People," p. 216. 



80 



INBIKA. 



The natives regard his administration as peculiarly favorable to 
them, and showed their appreciation of his services by popular 
demonstrations of remarkable magnitude and heartiness. The 
administration of his successor, Lord Dufferin, which lasted from 
1885 to 1888, was wisely conducted. Its most important polit- 
ical event was the accession of Burma to the empire of India. 
But the most far-reaching event was the founding of a movement 
by the Countess Dufferin for the supply of Medical Aid to the 
Women of India. 




MARCO POLO. 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE NATURAL DIVISIONS OF INDIA. 

India is known to its inhabitants, not as India, but as Bharata- 
varsha, or Land of King Bharata, the great ancient ruler of the 
Lunar dynasty.* It is mentioned in the Book of Esther as one 
of the one hundred and twenty-seven provinces of the son of 




SOPOR, HIMALAYAS IN THE BACKGROUND. 

Darius Hystaspes. It is cut off from the great central zone of 
Asia by the Himalaya Mountains, or Abodes of Snow. This 
range extends a distance of fifteen hundred miles, and has an 
unbroken water-shed of eighteen thousand feet in height, extend- 



* Dutt, " Historical Studies and Recreations," vol. i.. p. 34. 



82 INDIRA. 

ing from the gorge of the Brahmaputra in the east to the gorge 
of the Indus in the west.* The width of the Himalaya range 
is enormous. This mountain region far excels in size the whole 
Alpine range. The entire width of the Alps, measured from 
Lake Thun to the plains of Lombardy, is about seventy -five 
miles, while a line drawn across the Himalayas, from Simla due 
north, measures four hundred miles, f 

It has been truly said that "along the entire range of the 
Himalaya there are valleys into which the w T hole Alps might be 
cast without producing any result that would be discernible at a 
distance of ten or fifteen miles." Here rise great mountain sys- 
tems, now culminating in peaks higher than any thus far known 
to men, and now extending in great snowy lines, with immense 
glaciers stretching down in all directions. Mount Everest rises 
29,002 feet above the sea, or 12,000 feet higher than Mont Blanc. 
Three other Himalayan peaks are nearly as high — Kinchinjinga 
(28,156 feet), Chumalhari (23,929), and Dhawalagiri (26,826). 
General Strachey declares his expectation that many mountain- 
peaks will be found which will measure between 25,000 and 
30,000 feet, and that some peaks will be discovered w T hich will 
measure more than 30,000 feet in height. 

The Himalayan Mountain region furnishes the water supply 
for India and Burma. The streams pour out from the glaciers, 
and, gathering strength from many mountain tributaries, roll 
down from the lofty heights at from eight hundred to twelve 
hundred and fifty feet of descent per mile. Beyond the snowy 
crests of the Himalayas lie the broad plateau and the chain of 
Kuen-luns, running parallel with the Himalayas, which separate 
Tibet from India. The Himalayas and the Kuen-luns, with the 
table-land between, form one gigantic mountain system, of an 
average width of five hundred miles and two thousand miles in 
length. Such an immense mountain region has no equal on the 
face of the earth. Few of the peaks have been ascended, while 
many of the valleys have never been trodden by human feet. 
Here rise not only all the great rivers of India, but of all Asia. 
The rivers which run through the Chinese empire and Burma 
rise in the east, while the rivers of India, and, to some extent, of 
Persia, rise in the central and western regions. 



Smith, " The Geography of British India," pp. 1 ff. t Ibid., p. 20. 



THE NATURAL DIVISIONS OF INDIA. 




KOTTIAR, CEYLON. 



South of this great range lies British India. It covers an area 
of 1,577,698 square miles, and supports a population of over 
250,000,000 people. The distance from the Himalayas down 
to Cape Comorin is about the same as from Iceland to Spain. 
The distance from Bombay to Calcutta is the same as from Lon- 
don to Naples. The following table, from Behm and De Stein's 
statistics, will show the relation of the population and area of 
British India to other large countries : 



Square Miles. 



Square 
Kilometres. 



Population. 



British Empire 

British Indian Empire. . . . 
Chinese Empire , 

Tibet and E. Turkestan. . . 

Russian Empire 

Turkish Empire 

United States, N. A , 

Netherlands, with N. India 
Persia 



8,036,007 
1,494,310 
1,609,876 

4,725,500 
8,281,200 
2,494,520 

3,708,976 
'679,378 
658,828 



20,090,019 
3,845,186 
4,024,690 

11,813,750 
21,703,002 
6,236,300 
9,272,448 
1,985,183 
1,647,070 



303,512,568 

253,140,886 

280,000,000 

(estimated) 

29,800,000 

88,018,530 

23,119,800 

50.438,960 

27,320,469 

4,400,400 



84 



INDIRA. 



The following table will furnish a picture of the kingdoms 
and republics of Europe, contrasted with the great provinces 
and states of India : 



Bengal 

Assam 

British Burma . . . 
Andaman Islands 
N. W. Province, 
with Oudh. .. 
Panjab 

Bombay 

Ajmir 

Baroda 

Rajputana 

Central India . . . 
Central Province 

Berar 

Haidarabad 

Madias 

Kurg 

Mysore 



Square 
Miles. 



203,437 

55,384 

87,220 
3,285 

111,086 

221,749 

191,847 

2,710 

4,399 

130,994 

89,098 

113,042 

17,728 

80,000 

150,248 

1,583 

30,500 



Population. I Population. 



69,133,619 
4,908,276 

3,736,771 
30,000 

44,851,542 

22,712,120 

23,396,045 

460,722 
2,154,469 

11,005,512 
9,200,881 

11,505,149 
2,672,673 
9,167,789 

33,840,617 

178,302 

4,186,399 



37,672,000 

25,968,286 

29,702,656 
150,000 

28,437,091 

37,839,427 

20,974,411 

936,340 

1,506,531 

27,278,911 

29,702,656 

28,437,091 

2,846,102 

29,702,656 

16,625,860 

349,367 

3,734,370 



Square 
Miles. 



204,177 

58,320 

89,005 
4,200 

114,296 

240,942 

219,260 

2,866 

5,851 

137,066 

89,005 

114,296 

15,992 

89,005 

182,750 

1,526 

30,685 



Europe. 



France. 

j England and 

( Wales. 

Great Britain. 

Cyprus. 

Italy. 

Austria-Hungary. 
Spain and Por- 
tugal. 
Hesse. 
Baden. 
Prussia. 
Great Britain. 
Italy. 

Switzerland. 
Great Britain. 
Spain. 
Brunswick. 
Scotland. 



Beginning with the base of the Himalaya Mountains and look- 
ing southward, we have three distinct ranges of mountains dis- 
tributed through India. One is the great Yindhya, or " Hunter " 
range. It runs six hundred miles from east to west, or from 
Keesuach to Sasseram ; and three hundred miles from north 
to south, or from Agra to Hoshangabad. This immense Yindhya 
plateau separates the great valley of the Ganges from the 
Dekhan. It is the, " middle land " of the Aryan conquerors, and 
it is here, in the jungles and mountain fastnesses, that are still 
preserved the most undisturbed specimens of the pre -Aryan 
races. The aboriginal tongues are still heard here, and we can 
well imagine that, with the exception of some Sanskrit words 
and an element which has dropped in from the surrounding ver- 
naculars, one can still hear the same speech which was spoken 
by the inhabitants of India long before an Aryan had found his 
way down through the Afghan passes, or a single line of a Yeda 
had been chanted along the valley of the Ganges. 

The Satpura, or " Seven Towers " range, lies south of the 



THE NATURAL DIVISIONS OF INDIA. 85 

Vindhya, and runs parallel to it, extending six hundred miles 
westward to the Arabian Sea, and having a width of one hun- 
dred miles. 

But the most important range of mountains south of the 
Himalayas is the Sahyadri, or Western Ghats. They run along 
the western coast from, the Tapti Biver to Cape Comorin, a dis- 
tance of one thousand miles. They are intersected by passes, 
which, seen from the coast, present the appearance of a sierra 
or comb. The eastern coast is flat, and the western is elevated. 
Every important rivor, therefore, rising in the heart of India is 
thrown eastward, and empties into the Bay of Bengal. The 
average height of this range is three thousand feet. There are 
variations in the general direction. While the general trend is 
along the coast, there are scarps in different directions, and now 
and then lofty cones, which shoot up almost perpendicularly 
from the plain. Along the east coast there are occasional eleva- 
tions, but not enough to affect the general geological character 
of the country. 

Each section of India has a mountain region for a refuge for 
Europeans during the summer. The plateau of Puna furnishes 
a delightful summer resort for the citizens of Bombay. The 
southern people have only to betake themselves to the plateau 
and ridges of Mysore and the Nilgiris for a cool and bracing 
atmosphere. Those living along the valleys of the Jamna and 
the Ganges, and elsewhere in the north, can find refuge from 
the heat by going to the Vindhya range, or, which is best of 
all, by going to the many resorts in the Himalaya Mountains. 
Simla, because of its being the summer resort of the. viceroy and 
his council and court, is the most fashionable of all the summer- 
ing places, and, while Calcutta is nominally the capital, it can 
really boast of the honor for only about four months of the year, 
while Simla possesses it the remaining eight months. India is 
really governed from this magnificent summer retreat. 

The rivers of India are among the most remarkable in the 
world. We begin with the eastern or Burmese group. The Ira- 
wadi has two sources in the Himalayas, separated by a clay's 
journey. This river is a mile broad while yet eight hundred 
miles from the sea. It divides into two rivers before it reaches 
the Bay of Bengal. The Tsit-Toung (Sittang) has a breadth, in 
the Shwe-gyeen district, of from seven to eight miles, but nar- 
6* 



86 INDIRA. 

rows again before reaching the Bay of Bengal. It drains an 
area of twenty-two thousand square miles. The Salween is a 
narrow and rapid stream, flowing south of the Chinese province 
of Yunan. 

The Brahmaputra, or " Son of Brahma," rises in the great 
Tibetan table-land, and flows a distance of 1800 miles, finally 
emptying into the Bay of Bengal at its head. The basin which 
it drains has an area of 361,200 square miles. It is navigable 
a distance of eight hundred miles from the sea, and in volume, 
agricultural facilities, and commercial advantages it ranks next 
to the Ganges and the Indus, as the third Indian river in value 
to the empire. The Ganges, " The River," is eldest daughter 
of Himavat, " The Lord of Snow." It is the sacred river of the 
Hindus, who call it " Mother Ganga." Yenerable temples mark 
its rise among the glaciers of the Himalayas, and keep guard 
along its banks until it pours its vast waters into the Bay of 
Bengal. Its main course is 1680 miles in length. It loses its 
identity before reaching the sea. It begins to form its great delta 
while yet 240 miles from the sea. It divides into the Megua and 
the Hugh rivers, through which it passes its vast volume of water 
to the sea. The fertilizing power of this one river, and its relation 
to the life and commerce of India, beggars all description. It has 
no parallel in the world's life-bearing streams. " From the source 
of the Ganges in the Himalayas," says F. G. Carpenter, " to its 
mouth in the Bay of Bengal, it has a fall of more than two 
and one half miles, and as a fertilizing bearer it surpasses any 
river on the face of the globe. Egypt is the gift of the Nile. 
You could lose Egypt in these plains, which are the gift of the 
Ganges. The mighty Nile, with its unknown source, does not 
carry down as much water as this holy river of the Hindus, and 
its maximum discharge, at a distance of 400 miles from the 
sea, with many of its tributaries yet to hear from, is one third 
greater than that of the Mississippi. "Where the Ganges rises, 
bursting forth from a Himalayan glacier, it is 27 feet wide. It 
falls 3500 feet in the first ten miles of its course, and it has an 
average depth of 35 feet 500 miles from its mouth. Its delta is 
as wide as the distance from. New York to "Washington, and 
hundreds of mouths run from this width back into a sort of 
a parallelogram for 200 miles more, where they unite. The 
water of the Bay of Bengal is discolored for miles by the mud 



THE NATURAL DIVISIONS OF INDIA. 89 

brought down by the Ganges, and the whole country is fertil- 
ized by it. 

"The water is the color and thickness of pea-soup, and the silt 
or mud is so rich that these vast plains use no other fertilizer. 
The crops are harvested by pulling the stalks out of the ground. 
No cows or horses are allowed to pasture in the fields, and their 
droppings are mixed with straw and mud, and then dried and 
used as fuel. In this Ganges valley Nature is always giving, 
but never getting. Every atom of natural fertilizer save this 
Ganges silt is taken from the soil. Still the land is as rich as 
guano, and it produces from two to four crops every year. 
About Calcutta the alluvial deposit is 400 feet deep, and an ex- 
periment was lately made to get to the end of it. A well was 
sunk, but at the distance of 481 feet the auger broke. At this 
point the end of this rich soil had not been reached. 

" The amount of fertilizing material brought down by the 
Ganges has been lately estimated, and scientific investigation 
shows that some distance above the point where it unites with 
the Brahmaputra its yearly burden is the enormous amount of 
355,000,000 tons. A thousand-ton, ship is by no means small, 
and a fleet of 350,000 such ships could not carry this burden. 
The average freight-car is thirty-four feet long, and it takes a 
strong car to carry fifty tons. Suppose our freight-cars to be 
each sixteen feet longer than they are. Load upon each car 
fifty tons of this fertilizing mud, and it would take a train of 
more than seven million such cars to carry the yearly fertilizing 
output of this great river. If these cars were on a single track, 
the track would have to be 67,400 miles long. It would reach 
twice around the earth, and leave enough cars over to run two 
continuous trains through the centre. The most of this silt 
comes down during four months of the year, and if there were, 
daily fleets of 2000 ships, each containing 1400 tons of mud, dur- 
ing these four months they would just carry it. 

" But this is the work of the Ganges alone. It is five times 
as much as is carried by the Mississippi to the Gulf ; and farther 
down the river, where the great Brahmaputra joins it and flows 
out into its hundred mouths, the silt output is still greater. Dur- 
ing the rainy season alone the river here carries out enough silt 
to load 13,000 ships, with 1400 tons each, every day for four 
months. During this rainy season this w T hole delta of the Gan- 
ges is covered with water to the. extent of about thirty feet. 



90 INDIEA. 

You see only the tops of trees, and the villages which are built 
upon the hills, and the river farther up the country is diverted 
by canals from its course to every part of these vast plains. The 
best of the wheat is irrigated, and the water, being allowed to 
lie upon the land, drops this fertilizer and enriches it." * 

The Indus, or Abba Sin, " Father of Rivers," rises in the same 
great general Tibeto-Himalayan range. It has a course of 1802 
miles, and empties into the Arabian Sea. The great Five Rivers 
— the Jhelam, Chenab, Ravi, Beas, and Satlej — pour their waters 
into the Indus. The Indus has brought fertility to a vast sandy 
region, and has created the province of Sind as completely as the 
Nile has produced Lower Egypt. Its mouths are numerous, and 
frequently change. They extend a distance of 120 miles along 
the coast. 

We now come to the rivers which run through the centre and 
southern part of India, and which take their rise in the central 
and southern mountains. The Narbada separates Hindustan 
proper from the Dekhan. It is fed mainly by tributaries from 
the southern side of the Vindhya range, drains a basin of 36,400 
square miles, and empties into the Arabian Sea north of Bombay. 
The Tapti runs parallel to the Narbada, drains an area of 30,000 
square miles, and can boast of one hundred and eight sacred 
shrines along its banks. The Mahanadi, or " Great River," runs 
through the Central Province, and empties into the Bay of Ben- 
gal, having a drainage basin of 43,800 square miles. The Goda- 
vari rises within fifty miles of the Indian Ocean, and runs east- 
ward across the peninsula, and empties into the Bay of Bengal. 
The Kistna, or Krishna, runs in the same general direction, and 
also empties into the Bay of Bengal. It has a drainage of 94,500 
square miles. The Kaveri also crosses the peninsula eastward, 
drains an area of 28,000 square miles, and empties by two mouths 
into the Bay of Bengal. f 

There are but few lakes in India proper. But there are 
many, which are very beautiful, in the Tibeto-Himalayan plateau. 
Among these are Manasaraur and Rahhas Tal. On the Pamir 
steppe, or " Roof of the World," is Pamir, or Yictoria Lake. It 
is fourteen miles long, and gives birth to the Oxus River, flow- 



* Correspondence of the New York Times (June, 1889). 

tMedlicott and Blanford, " A Manual of the Geology of India," p. iii. 



THE NATURAL DIVISIONS OF INDIA. 



91 



ing westward, and to the Aksu, which flows eastward. Pang- 
king is a series of saline lakes which extend a distance of one 
hundred miles. The Runn of Kutch is a great salt marsh of about 
9000 square miles in area, and is one of the chief sources of the 
salt supply of India. Palti, Chonito-Dong, Dalguchu, Tengri-nor, 
Bulcho, and Koko-nor, " Blue Sea," are all situated in the north- 
ern Himalayan plateau. In the southern Himalayan plateau are 




A SALT-WELL, KUTCH. 



the beautiful Kashmir lakes, Srinagar and Manasbal, and Eular, 
Konsa Nag, ISTaini Tal, the Six Lakes of Sikkim, Sambhar, Lonar, 
Nakhi Talao, Amber, Nal, Chitka, Kolar, and Pulikat. Many of 
the tanks, receiving the waters from rivers and rainfalls, are so 
large as to compare favorably with natural lakes. The great 
tank at Haidarabad, in the Dekhan, would be readily taken in 
America for a natural lake. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE LIFE.— MINERALS. 

India comprises all climates. The uplands along the base of 
the Himalayas remind one of the temperate regions of Europe 
and the United States, while the southern part of the peninsula 
is as thoroughly tropical and luxuriant as the West Indies or the 
Molucca Islands. The animal life derives its varied forms from 
the many Indian climates. In Zerai and Assam the elephant still 
runs wild.* The dense jungles are their favorite home. The 
wild elephants are caught and tamed, and used for bearing bur- 
dens or adding to the dignity of petty chiefs or the Anglo-Indian 
nabob. In the old sculptures there can be seen magnificent ele- 
phants forming an important part in imperial processions. The 
same fondness for elephantine display still exists in India. On 
great occasions a line of elephants, richly caparisoned in purple 
and gold, is still considered a necessary factor in a vice-regal or 
princely procession. 

The lion, long the king of the Indian forest, is now rapidly dis- 
appearing. The south is still the home of the tiger. This ani- 
mal is getting more timid of late, because of the inroads made 
upon his species by English sportsmen and because of the 
progress of agriculture ; but the species known as the " man- 
eater " is still dreaded, because of his terrible ferocity Hunter 
gives the following account of the depredations of four of these 
animals : In three years one man-eater killed 108 people ; another 
destroyed 80 people in one year ; another was the dreaded pest 
of 30 villages ; while a fourth, in 1869, killed 127 people, and for 
many weeks closed up a great road to all travel. 

Chamois, chevreuils, bears, wild dogs, wolves, and other ani- 
mals of this class, are to be found in the north, and to some 
extent in all parts of India. The panther, hyena, jackal, croco- 

* Le Bon, " Civilization of India," pp. 57-68. 




DISTRIBUTION 

OP 

FOREST TREES 



NOTEt— Forests In Natlue States are not 
completely represented. 



> 



QMaldivels. 



I 1 )' W ft" 
QuilonV* L^/ty^fo vbLSh 

VOlv/o Palamcottah JTV 

Trivandrun^^fej: £ JcEYLO 

JStf^Ss, ■$> IftPutlam, 

C .Co^ or &A<?KuruneKla Ma ^| 

V ChilawJ 

tr 1/ 

COLOMBOW b Na' 



Cultural 

Badd£gaffik° 

Point de Galle 1 — »■ a 



ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE LIFE.— MINERALS. 



93 



dile, and. alligator are frequently met with. The rhinoceros is 
to be found chiefly in the marshy islands of the Ganges delta. 
In some instances the wild beast roams unpleasantly near the 
homes of quiet citizens. For example, Travancore, says Mateer, 
is a land whose capital is surrounded by the primeval forests, 
where the elephant, tiger, and wild ox roam unchecked near the 




NATIVES FELLING TIMBER. 



Brahman official or Sudra noble who lectures on modern science 
and writes the English language as well as any of us.* 

The most numerous of all animals in India is the cobra. It 
is regarded as sacred, and represents one of the powerful attri- 
butes of the god Vishnu. The cobra glides into the most private 
places. A newspaper lying on the grass in the courtyard of an 
Anglo-Indian for a day or two may be found to cover a cobra, 

* " Native Life in Travancore," p. 3. 



94 INDIRA. 

All classes of people in India soon learn the stealthy habits of 
this monster, and observe proper precautions against it. 

The government offers liberal rewards for the slaughter of 
dangerous animals. But, in spite of stringent preventive meas- 
ures, the destruction of human life by them is still deplorably 
large. The latest official returns (1886) present the following 
dark picture of the loss of life from the destructive animals of 
India : During the year 18S6, in British India, 24,841 persons 
were killed by wild beasts. Of these, 22,134 were killed by 
snakes, 928 by tigers, 222 by wolves, 194 by leopards, 113 by 
bears, 57 by elephants, 24 by hyenas, and 1169 by other ani- 
mals, including scorpions, jackals, lizards, boars, crocodiles, buf- 
faloes, mad dogs, and foxes. In the same year 57,541 animals 
were destroyed by wild animals; but in this case the propor- 
tions are quite different, for, while snakes were responsible for 
the deaths of eleven twelfths of the human beings, they only 
killed 2 in every 57 animals, tigers and leopards doing the great- 
est damage. Tigers show 23,769, leopards 22,275, wolves 4275, 
snakes 2514, hyenas 1312, and bears 758. In the case of both 
human beings and animals the destruction appears to be on the 
increase ; in the former case the number is higher than any one 
of the previous ten years, and in the latter it is third in ten years 
in point of numbers killed. At the same time the numbers of 
wild beasts killed and the rewards paid for that purpose are 
increasing. In 1886, 23,417 wild beasts were destroyed, and 
417,596 snakes. 

Sheep are raised for both meat and milk. The Hindu shares 
with the Jew an abomination for pork. The great streams 
abound in fish. Monkeys are numerous. In Cawnpore, Luck- 
now, and Benares they have their own way, and in some in- 
stances they have to be removed because of their remarkable 
fecundity. Parrots and birds of all varieties of rich plumage 
abound. The Hindus regard many birds as of great value to 
them, because they destroy insects and rapidly remove all de- 
caying vegetable matter.* 

The flora of India presents a picture of marvellous richness and 
variety. Great gardens, as in Allahabad, abound in roses of many 
species. In the mountains of Khari there are two hundred 

* Balfour, " The Agricultural Pests of India," London, 1887. 



ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE LIFE.— MINERALS. 97 

and fifty varieties of orchids. The Indian sun develops an ordi- 
nary plant into remarkable growth and productiveness. Wheat, 
maize, rice, and millet belong to the chief cereals which support 
life. For it must be remembered that the Hindu lives on vege- 
table food. It is safe to say that millions of the Hindu people 
never taste animal food from the cradle to the grave. The val- 
ley of the Ganges is the greatest harvest-field of India. Its soil 
is as rich as the valley of the Nile, and is kept fertile by the con- 
stant bringing clown from the mountains of matter essential to 
the growth of the cereals. Three crops a year on the same soil 
are frequent. 

Cotton now belongs in the front rank of products. . The fibre 
is not so good as the finer American varieties, but is improving 
constantly, and the export is a fine source of national revenue. 
The current native manufacture of cotton goods is now becom- 
ing disturbed by the manufacture of Indian cotton by the mills 
of Europe, and by sending back the stuffs to India, where they 
are furnished cheaper than the natives, by their simple weaving, 
have been in the habit of supplying them. Tobacco and jute 
are produced in large quantities. The tobacco of Trichinopoli is 
famous throughout India. 

Coffee was introduced into India on a large scale by Wallich 
& Gordon, in 1823, and is now very industriously cultivated on 
large plantations.* Tea is produced to a larger extent than 
in any other country except China. The great Himalayan tea- 
gardens in India were begun from seedlings sent to Calcutta 
from China by Gordon in 1835.f Opium, which is strictly a 
government monopoly, is mostly cultivated in the valley of the 
Ganges, in Panjab, and Rajputana. Indigo, betel, and quinine 
are important products. 

The spoliation of forests is common in India. Great reaches 
of rich timber-land have been stripped of trees by the natives, 
generally to get ashes for fertilization. Much of the forest-land 
is still in private hands, and therefore the government is power- 
less to prevent its devastation. In the Central Provinces 35,000 

* Hall, "Coffee Planting in Ceylon," p. 296; also, Royle, "Essay on the 
Productive Resources of India," p. 185. 

t Lees, " Tea Cultivation, Cotton, and Other Agricultural Exports in India," 
p. 43. 

7 



98 INDIRA. 

square miles are owned by private individuals, while the govern- 
ment owns but 20,000 square miles. In Bengal the landed pro- 
prietors hold from 40,000 to 50,000 square miles of forest-land, 
while the government owns but 11,754.* The sal (shorea robusta) 
and the teak (tectona grandis) are the two great varieties of trees 
for all general purposes. The teak is a magnificent wood for 
durability. No wood seems to be more nearly indestructible. 
The average life of a ship in the English navy is twelve years ; 
but a vessel built of teak will last fifty years and upwards. The 
famous old Lowji Castle, a merchantman of a thousand tons' 
burden, which ploughed the Eastern seas for three quarters of a 
century, was. built of teak. This wood is the principal material 
for building throughout India. 

In the higher lands the oak, the pine, and others of the more 
familiar trees of England and the United States, flourish. In 
the plains, and extending down to the Cape, the banyan and the 
mhowa abound. In seasons of famine this last-named tree has 
furnished, by its flower, the only food for the sustenance of mul- 
titudes of people. The bamboo, the iron-tree, and the fragrant 
sandal are important woods, and flourish luxuriantly. 

The most frequent and characteristic tree is the palm. Its 
graceful fronds wave everywhere, up to the very base of the 
Himalayas. But the paradise of the palm is in Southern India 
and Ceylon. It has many varieties. The fronds and bark mark 
the individuality. The talipot, the areca, the palmyra, the sago, 
the cocoanut, and the toddy palms are prominent varieties. Fer- 
guson says that the palmyra palm alone can be used for five hun- 
dred different purposes.f Others reckon its uses at about a thou- 
sand. Under favorable circumstances the cocoanut-palm sends 
out its spikes of blossoms every month, and is well-nigh a peren- 
nial bearer. In Ceylon the cocoanuts are plucked green when 
designed for immediate use. The vendor sells you one, and with 
a large knife cuts off the top. Unless you are careful, the creamy 
juice will fly all over you. The fruit is soft, like jelly, and very 
palatable. The juice of the young cocoanut is called " illaoreer," 
or " young water," " young juice " — " youngster," one might say. 

Each tree is very prolific, and is highly prized by all who have 

* Schlich, "Review of the Forest Administration in British India for the 
year 1882-3," p. 1. Simla, 1884. 

t " Information Regarding Ceylon," p. 5. 



ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE LIFE.— MINERALS. 101 

the good-fortune in life to possess one. The man who owns a 
plantation of palms is regarded as well-to-do in the world's goods. 
The palmyra bears an annual crop of from five to eight clusters 
of fruit, and from twenty to thirty nuts in each cluster. In the 
cocoanut, while the nut is the valuable part, the husk and the 
shell are utilized. The husk is the material from which coir-fibre 
is manufactured. Eopes are made from it, which are used for 
fishing-nets all over the world, because they are never rotted by 
salt-water. It is beaten out, after being soaked for months in 
salt-water. In the palmyra the nut is inedible except when less 
than half grown. In each palmyra-nut there is a rich orange- 
colored juice, which is a favorite drink. A wild date-palm 
yields about a hundred and eighty pints of juice a year ; each 
tree produces seven or eight pounds of sugar annually.* The 
cocoanut thrives best near the sea, or within reach of salt air. 

Bishop Fowler gives the following excellent description of the 
Singhalese palm : 

" One is constantly delighted with the variety and beauty of 
the palm. It seems to supply all the native wants. If he can 
climb (in this he approaches the skill of the monkey), he has 
food and shelter at hand. A young native puts his feet against 
the tree, and hooks his hands about it, and walks up it with 
ease and velocity; or, slipping his feet into a loop of rope a 
foot long, he clasps the tree with his feet thus held together, 
and leaps up three or four feet at a time. 

" The cocoanut-palm is at home in this climate. It probably 
came over from Southern India. It prefers sandy sea-shores to in- 
land soils. It seems to float, like the British flag, in all warm seas, 
and to root in every beach it touches. Even to the coral islands 
of the Indian Ocean floating cocoanuts have attached themselves, 
and are now covered with forests of these trees. The trunk is bare 
for forty or sixty feet, when it unfolds into a rich feathery crown 
or plume of long leaves, eighteen to twenty feet long. Every part 
of this tree is utilized. It is the centre of many industries. The 
tree is also especially adapted to the climate as a shade tree. 
One sees the houses or bungalows along the sea-shore completely 
shaded by these and other varieties of palms; yet the under 
space is open and clear for the free circulation of air. These 



* Drury, " The Useful Plants of India," p. 330. 



102 



INDIKA. 



palms draw themselves up as slimly and high as possible, trying 
to hold their needed umbrellas over the heads and homes of man 
without obstructing his vision or his breath. A few of the uses 
of this palm may be catalogued. The fibre is made into mats, 
ropes, cords, clothes, brushes, brooms, hats, and stuffing for cush- 
ions instead of hair. The fruit also produces valuable oil as 
well as food. It is expressed in the most primitive fashion. It 
is used for cooking and for light (non-explosive). Four nuts to a 
person is sufficient for a meal. The milk is like some ISTew York 
milk, more like water than milk. It is sweet, clear, and cool. 
For a very small coin a native went (walked or ran) up the tree, 
selected some nuts, picked them, took them in his teeth, came 




PANTHER DEVOURING A GAZELLE. 
(From the bronze by Antoine Louis Barye^) 

down as he went up, trimmed off the coarser shell down to the 
white meat, then stuck in his knife, when the milk spirted up 
two feet above the nut. The palm is a patent refrigerator, for 
the milk hanging in the broiling sun keeps sweet and cool. The 
shells are made into spoons, cups, and other things. The milk 
is made into toddy, vinegar, and sugar. The leaves' are valuable 
for thatching houses and for being braided into mats, hats, and 
coats. The undeveloped leaf, cut out of the heart of the tree, 
is used as we use cabbage. The brown fibres of the leaves are 
made into sieves and nets. Many drugs are' made from the 
tree. 

"The leaves of the palmyra and of the talipot palm supply 



ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE LIFE.— MINERALS. 1Q3 

the Hindus with paper. One of the curiosities offered to the 
traveller, and greatly tempting him to buy, is the ' Hindu Bible, 7 
written on these leaves. One is much interested in the kitul 
palm. It grows to its full height, fifty or sixty feet, before it 
blooms. Then it begins to unfold its flower at the top. The 
flower is long and hangs clown like a horse's tail, and is ten or 
twelve feet long. Then another flower unfolds in the joint be- 
low, and so on down, till all the leaves are pushed off and the 
tree dies." * 

The mineral wealth of India is not sufficiently developed to 
enable us to determine either its rarity or its extent. Iron has 
long been known to exist in great quantities. Among the ear- 
liest traces of human life are the rude iron implements forged 
far back in the aboriginal times. Copper and gold exist, and 
have been utilized from immemorial times. Coal is found in im- 
mense quantities. The river-basins furnish the great supplies, 
which are every year making the country more independent of 
England for fuel. The area of Indian coal measures is the fourth 
in size of all nations : 

Godavari and affluents 11,000 square miles. 

Seme 8,000 " " 

Sirguja and Orissa . 4,500 " " 

Assam 3,000 

Narbada and affluents 3,500 " " 

Damodar 2,000 " " 

Rajmahal 300 " 

Unsurveyed 2,700 " " 

Total 35,000 " " 

Comparison with other countries having the largest coal measures : 

United States 500,000 square miles. 

China 400,000 u 

Australia 240,000 " 

India 35,000 " " 

India is very rich in salt. There is a range of mountains in the 
Panjab called the Salt Range, in the upper waters of the Indus, 
which furnishes an inexhaustible supply of salt, and is a govern- 
ment monopoly. Rubies, sapphires, topazes, and emeralds abound, 

* Correspondence of the Christian Advocate (New York, March 28, 1889). 



104 



INDIKA. 



but not as in former times. The diamond is now a rare thing in 
Indian mines. Amethysts abound in the Aravalli Mountains. 
Rock crystal abounds in the Narbada Valley. The agate, the 
carnelian, and the onyx are frequent in Gujarat. Eajputana 
abounds in magnificent marbles, as rich and varied as is furnished 
by the quarries of Russia. 




GANGA SAGAK (WATER-VESSEL), BRASS, JHELAM. 



CHAPTEK IX. 

THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA. 

The form of the English government of India is complex. It 
is the outgrowth of great wars and long and laborious legisla- 
tion. There have been two distinct historical stages. The first 
was an individual government, or the rule of the East India Com- 




EAKL LYTTON. 



pany, from a.d. 1600 to 1857. The second has prevailed from 
1857 to the present, and is the government under the sovereign. 
The change from the East India Company to the present control of 
the Queen was made by direct act of Parliament. It was the result 



106 INDIRA. 

of the Sepoy rebellion, when it became clear that, to hold India,, 
there must be a direct responsibility of the government itself. 

The system is duplex, the general supervision being in Eng- 
land, but the real work being done by the local government in 
India. The supreme head of authority is the British sovereign, 
who is at the same time the Empress of India. But the practi- 
cal English government of India is vested in the Secretary of 
State for India, and the Council of Eifteen Members. They ad- 
minister the home business, such as the engagement of officers 
for the various departments of civil administration, the payment 
of pensions, the provision of funds for Indian expenditure in 
England, negotiations with the railroad companies, the purchase 
of supplies for Indian administration, and many other matters 
belonging to the English authority over India. The Secretary 
of State for India, at "Westminster, is vested with almost supreme 
power. He is the real representative of the sovereign. He can 
even veto any legislative enactment or administrative arrange- 
ment of the Yiceroy and his Council in India. But his course is 
marked with conservative care, and he takes his counsel largely 
from the local Indian government. 

Let us now look at the government of India in India itself. 
At the head stands the Yiceroy, who is called, in a business sense, 
the Governor-General of India. He is appointed by the Queen, 
at the. nomination of the existing ministry. His term lasts five 
years. The late Yiceroy, Lord Dufferin, was appointed through 
the nomination of Gladstone. The present Yiceroy, Lord Lans- 
downe, was nominated by Lord Salisbury. The capital of India 
is Calcutta, where the Yiceroy lives in the great Government 
House, and with almost regal surroundings. His summer cap- 
ital is Simla, in the Himalaya Mountains. He has a council 
of six ordinary members, besides the commander-in-chief of 
the Indian army and the lieutenant-governor of Bengal. The 
six ordinary members of his Council are appointed by the 
Yiceroy himself, are confirmed by the crown, and hold office 
five years. This is the Supreme Council. 

The Yiceroy has also a council for making laws, known as the 
Supreme Legislative Council, composed of the members of the Su- 
preme Council and nine others, five of whom must be non-official. 

The Supreme Council has charge of the finances of India, con- 
trols the subordinate or provincial governments, and can amend 




LORD LANSDOWNE. 



or annul any orders or proceedings of those provincial govern- 
ments. The Supreme Legislative Council has in hand the mak- 
ing or change of laws which apply to India as a whole, but leaves 
the local legislation to the provincial legislative bodies. It is not 
necessary that the Governor- General's Council consist of Euro- 
peans only. For example, a few years ago one of the members 
was a prominent Mohammedan lawyer of Calcutta, and well 
known throughout India. He went to Europe, and actually 
married a Christian wife. 

There are five provincial governments : Madras, Bombay, 
Bengal, Northwest Provinces, and Panjab. Each of these gov- 
ernments is fully equipped, having civil officers, judicial offi- 
cers, and authority to collect revenue. The governor of Madras 
is appointed by the crown, holds office five years, has his capital 
at Madras, and has a council of three. The government of Bom- 
bay is constituted in the same way as that of Madras, with the 
city of Bombay as the capital. The government of Bengal is 
administered by a lieutenant-governor, with a legislative council 



108 INDIKA. 

of twelve members. The lieutenant-governor is appointed by 
the Viceroy, and holds office five years. Calcutta is his capital. 
The Northwest Provinces and the Panjab are, each, under a 
lieutenant-governor, appointed for five years. 

The Church of England in India. 
The English government makes ecclesiastical provision for 
the Indian empire. There are five bishops, one of whom is the 
Koman Catholic bishop of Bombay; three arch-deacons; and 
one hundred and eighty chaplains, besides registrars, clerks, and 
other minor officers. The bishop of Calcutta is the metropolitan, 
or head. Madras, Bombay, and the Panjab have each a bishop 
of the Church of England. Of the one hundred and eighty 
chaplains, the majority are of the Church of England, but a few 
are of the Church of Scotland. The annual cost to the treasury 
of India for keeping up the ecclesiastical establishment is one 
hundred and sixty-four thousand pounds sterling. 

The Government and Education. 
There is no compulsory education in India. Each presidency 
has its college and graded schools throughout the country, ac- 
cording to the needs of the population. There are ten inspectors- 
general, or directors of public instruction; four hundred and 
fifty inspectors, sub- inspectors, and deputies ; and about six thou- 
sand principals, professors, head - masters, and teachers of all 
grades. Many of these positions are held by natives, but the higher 
appointments are usually filled by Europeans. The annual cost to 
the empire for keeping up the educational establishment is one 
mil] ion pounds sterling, while the receipts from fees and other 
sources only reach about one hundred thousand pounds sterling. 

The Army. 
During the government of India by the East India Company 
the army for India consisted of a large force, both native and 
English, but not forming a part of the regular army of Great 
Britain. The present arrangement is, that no English soldiers 
are enlisted for special service in India. But there is a large 
body of them in India all the time, though they constitute a part 
of the regular army of Great Britain. For their support the 
English at home do not pay a shilling. India must pay the 




BENGAL LANCIERS. 



THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA. HI 

whole bill for all her soldiers, whether European or native, and 
even meet the expenses of transportation between England and 
India. One third of the regular army of Great Britain, there- 
fore, does not cost the English tax-payer anything. The average 
strength of the Indian army is one hundred and eighty thou- 
sand, exclusive of officers. Of this number sixty thousand are 
European troops. The annual cost of this force is sixteen mill- 
ion pounds, of which twelve millions are spent in India, and 
nearly four millions in England. Heavy ordnance, shot and 
shell, and small arms are supplied to the Indian army from Eng- 
land, but gunpowder, cartridges, bullets, clothing, and similar 
necessaries are manufactured in India at the government fac- 
tories. Horses for cavalry service are mostly brought from 
Australia. England takes good care to make the people of In- 
dia share in providing for any war, at home or abroad, which 
she may carry on.* If there should be a war between England 
and the United States, and our country should be invaded by 
the English army, we might expect native Hindus and Moham- 
medans to be a prominent contingent in the invading force. 
Then, too, India would pay the bill for sending her own troops 
to our shores. While England has an empire in India, not less 
than the Roman at its greatest extension, she rules India by 
Indian troops, and pays them with Indian money. There are 
but 65,000 British soldiers in India, while the native troops 
number 135,000.f There were more Sepoys than Europeans at 
the siege of Arcot and the battles of Plassey and Buxar. This 
immense Indian empire, which is now made to pay its own bills, 
was won to England at the very time when she was losing the 
thirteen American colonies which became the United States. 
One of her very agents for winning India was Cornwallis, who 
delivered his sword to Washington, and surrendered the struggle 
for further possession of the American colonies. 

The Police. 
The police force of India was systematically organized about 
1860. The model is that of Great Britain. Each presidency 
has its separate establishment, under the control of inspectors- 

* Hunter, "England's Work in India," p. 13 ff. 
t Seeley, "Expansion of England," pp. 178-191. 



112 INDIKA. 

general. The total general police force is as follows : Two hun- 
dred and sixty district superintendents and their assistants ; one 
thousand and fifty inspectors ; two thousand two hundred and 
fifty sub-inspectors ; fourteen thousand head constables ; and 
ninety thousand constables. These are under the charge of six 
inspectors-general, and twelve assistant inspectors-general. The 
annual cost of keeping up this system is two million three hun- 
dred thousand pounds sterling. 

Medical System. 
The medical system of India is kept up largely by the general 
treasury. Hospitals provided by private beneficence are as yet 
few, but are on the increase. The present medical establishment 
is the outgrowth of the arrangements made by the old East India 
Company. Every principal station, or seat of government offi- 
ces, has a medical officer, with a dispensary and a staff of assist- 
ants. Where necessary, there is also a hospital. All persons, 
Europeans and natives alike, are entitled to the gratuitous use of 
these provisions. Medical colleges are established by the gov- 
ernment in many of the principal cities and towns. But all these 
arrangements are insufficient for the great needs of the people. 
The missionary societies are supplementing the efforts of the 
government in a remarkable degree. But for their aid the suf- 
ferings of the women and children would be incalculable. 



WATER-VESSEL, COPPER-TINNED. 
OLD KASHMIR WARE. 



CHAPTER X. 

THE FEUDAL STATES. 

It is an error to suppose that England is ruler of all India. 
There are certain native states which have never passed under 
the English crown, and it may be centuries before they will be 
compelled to do so. 

The reasons are many. Among them, and chief of all, is the 
old friendship of certain native rulers for England. In the long 




NARAYAN HITTI, THE PALACE OF THE MAHARAJAH, AND RAJ GURU'S TEMPLE. 



conflict in which England was engaged for the conquest of the 
country there were always native princes who, with their troops, 
fought under the British flag. The most of the soldiers who 
fought with Clive at Plassey were native Hindus. Whatever 
the promises made, the fact remained the same — Clive, Corn- 
wallis, Wellesley, and all the rest were shrewd enough to op- 
pose native troops by native troops. Motives of interest were 
not wanting. The land had no peace. The many native rulers 
were at war with each other, and when England proposed to 
share in the fighting there were natives who rejoiced in the op- 
portunity of help in slaughtering their foes. When Clive con- 
quered he displaced one opposing prince by putting a friendly one, 
8 



114 



INBIKA. 



who had helped him to victory, on the throne. From the very 
beginning of English rule there have been friendly native princes. 
England has respected this friendship. The native rulers who 
have stood firmly to her interests, and have aided her in adjust- 
ing her government to the conditions of the country, have never 
lost their thrones. The attitude towards the government on the 
part of the native princes, when the mutiny of 1857 broke out, 
was the most critical feature of the great convulsion. The north- 
ern part of India was in hot rebellion. In the south, however, 




ENTRANCE GATE TO THE MAHARAJAH'S PALACE, 
INDORE. 

there were friendly princes, who had closer acquaintance with 
English power and a higher appreciation of English justice. 
They joined their cause to that of England herself. Had Eng- 
land depended entirely on her own troops, she must have lost her 
empire. She not only found friendly allies in the south, but some 
of her bravest soldiers were the native troops which had come to 
her through her conquests. For example, the Kashmir state and 
the protected Sikh states furnished some of the bravest and most 
loyal of all the troops who fought for the suppression of the mutiny. 
Of all the native princes who stood firmly beside England in 



) illlE'f /: : 



jijPllpf 

1 ■■■:■ ■ I I 



m^M^mm 



IB 




REIGNING KING, IN COURT DRESS. NEPAL. 



THE FEUDAL STATES. 



117 



the greatest crisis of her Indian history, the Nizam, whose ter- 
ritory bears the name of " The Nizam's Dominions," in the Dek- 
han, was the most important. His territory is the largest of all 
the native states. Its area is equal to that of Maine, New Hamp- 
shire, Massachusetts, Ehode Island, Connecticut, and Maryland. 
The Nizam's prime-minister at the time of the mutiny was Sir 




ROYAL PALACE, BHATGAON. 



Salar Jang. He was wise and of broad view. He held his high 
office about twenty-five years, and was practically the ruler of the 
country all the time. He advised the cordial support of England 
in her struggle against the mutineers. As a result, when the mutiny 
was overcome the Nizam was more firmly seated on his throne 
than ever. Had the Nizam and his subjects thrown their influence 
and the weight of their army on the side of the natives, it is likely 
that the mutineers would have succeeded, and secured control of 
the whole country. The loyalty of the Nizam's Dominions was 
8* 



113 INDIKA. 

the breakwater against the general tide of rebellion in the north, 
extending from Delhi in the west to Calcutta in the east. 

After the death of the Nizam, and during the minority of his 
son, the same wise man directed the regency. The son of that 
Sir Salar Jang is now the prime-minister of the present Nizam. 
The young Nizam is following closely in his father's footsteps, 
as a friend not only of England, but of all the progressive move- 
ments which have had their origin since the beginning of the 
English supremacy. Once, while inspecting a list of ready-made 
appointments, he dealt a severe blow to the native prejudices 
by saying : " In my opinion, it is my duty and that of my gov- 
ernment to protect the right of my people. It is not, however, 
my desire to select natives of my dominions for employment 
irrespective of their qualifications. Preference should be given 
them when they are found to be qualified for positions in the pub- 
lic service, but, in cases where their attainments are not equal 
to the required standard, the services of outsiders must be pro- 
cured." * 

The liberal policy of the English government towards these 
native states may be seen in the one fact that, when railroads 
are built through them the native treasury is not charged with 
the expense. It is a question, indeed, whether in any depart- 
ment of English administration more wisdom has been shown 
than in the careful and considerate treatment of the native rulers. 

It must not be supposed, however, that England is not watch- 
ful of the conduct of all the native princes. She always provides 
an English Resident, who lives near the native court, and watches 
every movement. He is the medium of communication between 
the native government and the British government of India. In 
Haidarabad, for example, I found the English Resident living in 
a palatial home, with beautiful and extensive grounds. The busi- 
ness of this English gentleman is to preserve loyal relations on 
the part of the Nizam's government. Every important move- 
ment, not only in Haidarabad, but all over the Nizam's domin- 
ions, is watched. The Resident's business is to observe and 
report. In addition to him there is a great English camp at 
Sikandarabad, five miles distant. It is the largest body of Brit- 

* For an excellent description of the native states of India, see Pearce, 
" History of India," pp. 227 ff. On the number and magnitude of the native 
states of India, see Appendix. 



THE- FEUDAL STATES. 121 

ish troops in Southern India. They, in case of insubordination 
to the English government, could be on the spot in an hour's 
time, and quell the uprising instantly. The presence of the 
English Eesident and the proximity of the troops, all of whom 
are commanded by British officers, furnish a picture of the pecul- 
iarly effective and original way which England has found by ex- 
perience needful to preserve actual control over all the native 
populations of India. 

The native states furnish a certain annual tribute to the Brit- 
ish government, and have no share in an outward policy. They 
exist, and enjoy the illusion of an independent political life. One 
of the great concerns on the part of the princes has been the right 
to name a successor in case of the absence of a son. In 1858, 
however, the English issued a decree by which a native prince 
can adopt a successor, according to the Hindu or Mohammedan 
usages. This measure was brought about largely through Lord 
Canning, who was governor-general at the time. 

The native states will diminish, and in time disappear. Some 
rulers have chosen to give up these merely nominal thrones and 
receive a pension from the English government. But England 
is very patient, and so long as no trouble comes she has little to 
say. She keeps aloof from local strifes, and leaves to her Resi- 
dent the giving of needful advice, which is generally regarded as 
final. Nearly all the native princes are in hearty sympathy with 
Western life. They are fond of making the " grand tour " to Eng- 
land, and learning all about the country which has so strangely 
extended itself to their native India. 




MUSICAL INSTRUMENT USED IN DEMON WORSHIP. 



CHAPTER XI. 

THE WILD TRIBES OP INDIA. 

The wild tribes of India are beginning to come in for their 
share of European study. They stand in the same relation to 
the great races of India that the American Indians occupy in 
relation to their Anglo-Saxon conquerors. They are the first- 
known occupants of the soil. The Aryan conquerors took pos- 
session of all the desirable country, captured the towns and 
cities, seized upon the arable land, and either made serfs of the 
conquered foes or drove them off to obscure places. Only a few 
of the stronger races, by bravery and withdrawal, managed to 
preserve a separate existence. For example, the Khonds, of the 
Central Provinces, continued to lead a measure of independent 
life until a.d. 358, and were first thoroughly subjugated by the 
Rajputs.* The Bhils, the Kols, the Oraons, the Nagas, and 
many other fragments of the first-known races of India, now 
subsisting on unnatural food, and the gross denizens of the jun- 
gles and marshes, are but the fragments of tribes, old and nu- 
merous, which were strong and fearless when the gifted Aryans 
came clown from the northwestern table-lands, and had the daring, 
even before their work was complete, to write epics of their 
achievements. Those early Northern aboriginal tribes— so says 
the "Rig Veda" — bore the names of Dasyus, Rakshasas, and 
Asuras, or Pisachas. One chief, for example, Sambara, lived 
forty years upon the mountains, and ruled over one hundred 
strong cities. As the Indian races of Mexico, which were con- 
quered by the Spanish invaders under Cortez, were compelled to 
flee to the mountains and to the more secluded places, and who 
thus kept up a separate existence for three centuries, so the only 
safety of the conquered possessors of India lay in withdrawing 
to the jungle and the mountain.f 

* Rowney, " The Wild Tribes of India," pp. 14, 140. 

| For a minute enumeration of the castes and tribes in India, see Kitts, " Com- 
pendium of the Castes and Tribes found in India." Bombay, 1885. 



THE WILD TRIBES OF INDIA. 



123 



These tribes, the oldest blood of India, may be grouped as 
follows : 



Tribes of the Central Provinces. 
The Khonds. 
The Brinjarls. 
The Bhowils. 
The Tanuiuks. 
The Korawars. 
The Bhatus. 
The Mudikpurs. 

II. 

Tribes op Western India. 

The Bulls. 
The Kols. 
The Grassias. 
The Kattls. 
The Kattaurls. 

III. 

Tribes of Rajputana. 
The Mairs and Mlnas. 

IV. 
The Desert Tribes. 
The Sodas. 
The Kaorwas. 
The Dhattls. 
The Lohannas. 
The Rebarris. 
The Sehraes. 
The Thori. 

V. 
kolarian and other races in 
Bengal. 
The Kols. 
The Sontals. 
The Oraons. 
The Pah ails. 

VI. 
Minor Tribes in Bengal. 
The Karwars. 
The Puttuas. 
The Sauras. 

VII. 
Tribes of the Madras Presidency. 
The Khonds. 
The Tod as. 
The Eriligaru. 
The Karubarus. 
The Soligas. 
The Niadls. 
The Gypsies. 



VIII. 
The Frontier Tribes. 
The Baluchls. 
The Pathans. 
The Mizlras. 
The Bunnoches. 
The Murwatls. 
The Afridis. 
The Momunas. 
The Sevatls. 

IX. 

Tribes of the Northern Frontier. 
The Bhotls. 
The Khasias. 
The Boksas. 
The Tharus. 
The Limbus. 
The Murmls. 
The Vayus. 
The Kerantls. 
Tlie Lepclias. 
The Butlahs. 
The Mechis. 
The Kochis. 

X. 

Tribes of the Northeastern 
Frontier. 
The Akhas. 
The Duflas. 
The Miris. 
The Abors. 
The Mishmis. 
The Kliamptls. 
The Singphos. 
The Nagas. 
The Cacharese. 
The Mikirs. 
The Kukies. 
The Cossyas. 
The Garos. 

XI. 
Tribes of the Eastern Frontier. 
The Jurnias. 
The Shindus. 
The Khumeas. 
The Kus. 
The Mrus. 
The Khyens. 



124 



INDIRA. 



Between the wild tribes of India and the great fixed Hindu 
population there are important differences. This might be ex- 
pected. The tribes have changed but little, except as influenced 
by slight contact with Europeans, but more especially by the 
labors of Protestant missionaries. If one wishes to know what 
kind of people occupied India before the Aryans swept down 
into the great Gangetic Valley, he has only to visit the naked 
Hill-men of to-day. The following are among the differences be- 
tween the wild tribes and the Hindus : 

1. The Hindus have division of caste. The aborigines have no 
caste. 

2. The Hindu widows do not remarry ; the widows of the ab- 

origines do remarry, mostly tak- 
ing the younger brothers of their 
former husbands. 

3. The Hindus venerate the 
cow, and abstain from beef ; the 

^ISI flitt ''11 aborigines feed on all flesh 

W»"i ,; lUfc alike 

4. The Hindus abstain from in- 
toxicating drinks ; the aborigines 
delight in them, and even their 
religious ceremonies are not com- 
plete without them. 

5. The Hindus prepare their 
own food, and take only what 
has been prepared by a higher 
caste ; the aborigines partake of 
food prepared by any one. 

6. The Hindus do not shed 
blood habitually ;r but no ceremony of the aborigines is com- 
plete without the shedding of blood. 

7. The Hindus have a caste of priests ; the aborigines select 
their priests out of those particularly skilled in magic, sorcery, 
or divination, or in curing diseases. 

8. The Hindus burn their dead ; the aborigines mostly bury 
their dead. 

9. The Hindu civil institutions are municipal; those of the 
aborigines are patriarchal. 

10. The Hindus have known letters, science, and the art of 




V 



VEDDAH. 



THE WILD TRIBES OF INDIA. 



125 



writing for more than three thousand years ; while the aborig- 
ines are now, at least, illiterate. 

Among the more advanced of the primitive tribes are the 
Santals and the Khonds. Many remains of non- Aryan tribes 
are found in the Anamalai Hills, in the southern part of the 
presidency of Madras. Among them are the Puliars, the Mun- 
daoers, the Kaders, and the JSTairs. In the Central Provinces 




THE DASERA, OR ANNUAL SACRIFICIAL FESTIVAL OF THE GURKHA REGIMENTS 

LN INDIA. 

the non- Aryans form an important part of the population. The 
Khonds are the most important stock. In Orissa there are the 
Juangs, or Patuas, " leaf -wearers." The Akas live in Assam. 
The Bhils are the most important race of a large group of non- 
Aryans living in the mountains separating North from South 
India. The languages of these wild tribes bear no resemblance 



126 INDIRA. 

to the Sanskrit, which was the language which the Aryans 
brought with them. Many of the missionary societies have be- 
gun work among these rude tribes, and have met with great suc- 
cess. The Gypsies can not be reckoned an aboriginal Indian tribe. 
But the testimony is strong that they appear early in India, if, 
indeed, they are not of Indian origin. They first come to light 
in Indian history among the marshes bordering on the Indus.* 
The wild tribes have developed some of the most persistent 
and bitter violators of the laws. Many of them know very well 
that their fathers were the original possessors of the soil, and 
have always cherished the most relentless antipathy to both 
Hindus and Mohammedans. The Bhils, until made to feel the 
pressure of English rule, were a fair example of the lawless class. 
They pursued an original method of operation. They levied a 
tax on a community, and, unless it was promptly paid, carried 
out their threat of death or mutilation.f For example, a note 
was found one day dangling about the neck of a village idol. It 
had been secretly placed there. It read as follows : 

" From Molmn Naik 

To Bhola, Patel of Keepra Kaira. 
" The moment you receive this note you must bring rupees 500, which are 
due to us. If any delay occurs we will put your people to death, cut off their 
ears and noses, and help ourselves. Let this be well considered." J 

We can well imagine that this was " well considered," and 
that the demand was promptly complied with. 

The conquered race is always at the feet of the conqueror, not 
only to smart under his lash, but to partake of his vices. The 
Indians of the American colonies, and later of the United States, 
became intemperate through the practice of the new-comers 
of selling them intoxicating liquors. Few vices known to the 
Anglo-Saxon have been kept aloof from the American Indian. 
Precisely the same scourge has come to the native races of India. 
The English have supplied them with " fire water." It is not 
likely that there is one important hill tribe in all India which 
has not been placed at the mercy of the liquor-seller or the 
extortionate money-lender. § 

* MacRitchie, "The Gypsies of India," pp. 2, 8. 

t Rowney, "The Wild Tribes of India," pp. 211, 217, 218. 

X Ibid., p. 25. § Ibid., p. 211. 



CHAPTEB XII. 

RAILROADS.— CANALS.— TELEGRAPHS.— POSTAL SYSTEM. 

The growth of the Indian railway system has been rapid. 
The first road was begun in 1849, and eight trunk lines have 
been completed, which unite all parts of the country. The gov- 
ernment began the construction by a wise method of guarantee. 
It was supposed, at the beginning, that, owing to the poverty of 
the people, the railroad could not be made to pay expenses. But 
the government saw the necessity of the railway system, not 
only from a military point of view, but as a means of national 
development. Accordingly, it was resolved to guarantee a min- 
imum interest, or dividend, on all capital subscribed. "With this 
good offer the capital for all proposed railways was immediately 




A BRIDGE OF SHOPS, SRINAGAR (KASHMIR). 

taken in England. Only a few natives have taken shares. In 
1882, out of a total of 64,321 registered holders of Indian railway 
shares or stocks, only 317 were natives of India. But the natives 
are doing the main work. Of the 197,748 persons employed on 
the working lines in 1884, only 4069 were Europeans, and 4250 
were Eurasians, while 189,429 were natives. Within a few years 
the Indian government has taken even a more direct share in the 
construction of smaller or branch roads. It is building them at 
the expense of the state, and pays for the construction out of the 
current annual revenues. 



128 INDIEA. 

The railroads of India are of two classes — the Guaranteed and 
the State Railways. So far as we can safely compute, from the 
latest statistics, there are now about sixteen thousand miles of 
railway in India. About twelve hundred miles of new railway 
are added every year. The authorities of the different roads are 
about establishing, in the Hill Country, sanitaria for the children 
of Europeans in the service of the railways.* 

Rapid as is the progress of the railway system in India, we see 
to-day only the crude beginning. The time is rapidly approach- 
ing when the entire land will be covered with a network of rail- 
way lines, and when a close connection with Europe will be 
established. The old palanquin is rapidly passing away. In 
time it will be as rare, except in the Nilgiri Hills and the Him- 
alayas, as in Surrey. The Anglo-Indian will be content Math 
more modern means of locomotion, instead of being borne slow- 
ly over the country, and being compelled to listen to such noc- 
turnal strains from unwilling and perspiring palanquin-bearers 
as the following : 

u Oh, what a heavy bag ! 
No, it's an elephant. 
He is an awful weight. 
Let's throw his palkee down ; 
Let's set him in the mud ; 
Let's leave him to his fate. 
No, for he'll be angry then ; 
Ay, and he will beat us then, 

With a thick stick ; 
Then let's make haste and get along, 

Jump along quick !" t 

Frequent trains will, in due time, traverse the distance between 
India and Europe, and instead of there being only a weekly mail, 
as now, by the Peninsular and Oriental steamers, a train will ar- 
rive in India every day, bringing a large number of passengers 
and the latest mail from the whole "Western world. 

The present extension of the European system of railroads 
towards the Indian interior warrants this anticipation. Railroad 
extensions already in progress, from Russia eastward and from 
India Avestward, when completed, will make the interval only a 

* Mackenzie, " How India is Governed," p. 51 ff. 

t Eden, "India, Historical and Descriptive," p. 115. (Loud. 1876.) 



RAILROADS.— CANALS.— TELEGRAPHS.— POSTAL SYSTEM. 129 



matter of eight hundred 
way can be built at a 
sterling. Marvin says 
that the present indica- 
tions are that the gap 
will very soon be only 
two hundred miles; that 
already some of the gates 
of Herat are in the Post- 
al Union, and that a let- 
ter can be sent by the 
Russian ambassador 
from London to Ali- 
khanoff at Pul-i-khisti 
for a penny.* 

With a fair allowance 
made for detentions aris- 
ing from the collision of 
English and Russian in- 
terests, it can hardly be 
more than eight years 
before the line will be 
unbroken between Cal- 
ais and Calcutta, and 
that the Governor-Gen- 
eral of India will receive 
his mail eight days after 
leaving the London post- 
office. 

The government has 
been equally attentive 
to the construction of 
canals. During the su- 
premacy of the native 
rulers as much was done 
for irrigation as could 
have been expected of 
men whose chief busi- 
ness was warfare. Many 



and fifty-seven miles, over which a rail- 
cost of less than four million pounds 










"THE OCEAN OP MILK" WATERFALL AND THE 
RAILWAY VIADUCT, ON THE WEST-OP-INDIA 
PORTUGUESE RAILWAY. 

of the present canals are made to serve 



9 



* " The Russians at the Gates of Herat," Amer. ed., pp. 157 ff. 



130 



INDIRA. 



the double purpose of bearing produce and articles of mer- 
chandise and of irrigating the fields. The wells in some vil- 
lages are sunk for drinking purposes, but the great mass of 
the tens of thousands of village wells are mainly for irriga- 
tion. Irrigation had already been in use, but the present gov- 
ernment has developed into larger proportions what it found. 
It has renovated or enlarged the old works, built new irrigating 
canals, and overcome difficulties which no preceding government 
could have surmounted.* The Ganges Canal, which is seven 
hundred miles long, and catches up half the volume of the water 




BARABUIRA LOCK, ON THE KENDRAPARA CANAL. 

of the Ganges as it bursts forth from the mountains, and dis- 
tributes it over the vast region lying between the Jamna and 
the Ganges, is the greatest irrigating stream in the world. f 

In Madras, out of a total of twenty-two millions of arable 
acres, four millions are artificially irrigated.:}; In the Northwest 
Provinces, one million five hundred thousand acres are under ir- 
rigation, and produce seven hundred and seventy-five thousand 
tons of grain. This is provision for six millions of people.§ In 
1882 there was a total of twelve thousand seven hundred and fifty 



* Temple, "India in 1880," p. 248. 

t Murdock, " India's Needs," p. 23. 

\ Strachey, "Finances and Public Works of India," p. 177. 

§ Ibid., p. 179. 



RAILROADS.— CANALS.— TELEGRAPHS.— POSTAL SYSTEM. 131 




CROSSING A STREAM. 



miles of irrigating ducts throughout the empire. By the present 
date the number of miles must be about fifteen thousand. In 
1880 the acreage under irrigation was six million three hundred 
and ten thousand. This area is constantly increasing. Since 1823 
the amount of money expended by. the government for canals 
has reached twenty millions of pounds sterling.* The revenue 
arising from all the irrigating works amounts to five per cent, on 
the capital invested. f 

The telegraph system is keeping up with the railway. All the 
larger places are connected by telegraph. The government owns 
all the lines, except those in possession of the railroads, which 



* Smith, " Student's Geography of British India," p. 34. 
t Buckley, "The Irrigating Works of India," p. 189. 



132 



INDIRA. 



also open their wires to the public for use along their own lines. 
The usual rate for messages is high — two shillings for every six 
words. The annual expenditure on the Indian telegraph estab- 
lishment is about five hundred thousand pounds sterling, and the 
average receipts about three hundred and fifty thousand pounds 
sterling. This leaves an annual deficit of one hundred and fifty 
thousand pounds sterling as an annual charge on the imperial 
revenues.* 

The postal system is as nearly perfect as anywhere in the 
world. It is a rare thing for a letter to be lost. A merchant of 
Calcutta, having a large correspondence, told me that for prompt- 
ness and faithfulness in delivery no praise was too high. My 
letters from Europe and America followed me from place to 
place, and were often so marked by frequent changes at post- 
offices that the address was nearly illegible. 




A MUCH-ADDRESSED MISSIVE. 



The mails are carried free of charge to the government on all 
the railways, this being one of the conditions of the charter. 

* Mackenzie, " How India is Governed," pp. 51 ff. 



RAILROADS.— CANALS.— TELEGRAPHS.— POSTAL SYSTEM. 133 

The annual expenditure for the postal department is about one 
million pounds sterling. The annual deficiency in meeting this 
sum is about one hundred thousand pounds sterling. 



weJjpostWe.. 

(ALLEMAGNE — 




^..^2M.z^j^^^Mm 




g^zj&zaSk 




I "C 



c{t 






A PUZZLING POSTAL-CARD. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

THE PARSIS OP INDIA. 

My first view of the Parsis was on the steamer Sutlej. A 
number of them took passage at Aden for Bombay. A portion 
of the forward deck was assigned to them, where they spread 
out their bedding every night, and gathered it up in the morn- 
ing. They were well clad, intelligent, affable, communicative, 
and of fine features. I observed that their more prominent but- 
tons were of solid gold, and, singularly enough, were the smaller 
gold coins used in the United States. I had several conversa- 
tions with these Parsis, when our subject was generally their 
religious opinions. 

This contact with only a few members of this strange com- 
munity made me fully prepared for a larger view of the great 
Parsi population of Bombay. Every day my admiration for 
this people, saving only their false religion, increased. 

Throughout India there are probably 80,000 Parsis. Of these 
about 70,000 live in the presidency of Bombay alone, and 50,000 
of these live in the city of Bombay. They form a class by them- 
selves, separated socially from both the Christian and Hindu 
populations, and thoroughly independent of all other classes. 

"Why are these Persians in India? The question will strike 
any studious stranger frequently, as he sees the important place 
which the Parsi community occupies in the commerce and gen- 
eral advance of the country. Yet the proper answer lies far back 
in the past of both India and Persia. 

The Parsis are the descendants of the Persians who were driven 
out of their own country, in the eighth century, by the Moham- 
medan conquerors. Khalif Omar was the first Mohammedan 
chief to invade Persia. He was victorious, and dealt destruction 
on every hand. Violent persecutions were organized against 
the conquered people, who fled before their cruel masters. They 
reached the mountain region of Khurasan, or the outlying des- 



THE PABSIS OF INDIA. 135 

erts, and remained about a century. But here, too, they were 
persecuted. Some, however, continued to occupy Yezd and Kir- 
man, where they still linger in a wretched condition of ignorance 
and poverty.* Professor Westergaard, of Copenhagen, visited 
this poor Parsi community in 1843, and found the majority in 
a wretched state, oppressed and unfairly taxed by the Persian 
government. No complete copy of the Zend Avesta existed 
among them, though there were a great many copies of the 
Khorda-Avesta, and a few of the Yendidad and Yasna. These 
Persians have no opportunity to rise above the lowest life, and, 
in order to support themselves even scantily, become gardeners. 

A large number of the conquered Persians, however, instead 
of fleeing to the mountains and desert, took refuge in the island 
of Ormus, at the entrance of the Persian Gulf. But there was 
no peace even in this retired place. They finally succeeded 
in getting a few boats, and, embarking on them, set sail for 
the Indian coast. They could have remained in Persia, had 
they been willing to adopt the Mohammedan. faith. But the 
religion of Zoroaster had too strong a hold on them. They 
would not sacrifice one of its tenets. They preferred exile to 
another religion. In India they were cautiously received by 
the Hindu prince Jadi Rana. From this little colony has sprung 
the wealthy and strong Parsi population of India. f 

This was in the year 716. The prince was afterwards favor- 
ably impressed by their appearance, and gave them full liberty 
to reside and practise their religion in his province of Sanjan. 
They enjoyed three centuries of quiet, during which time they 
were reinforced throughout the Gujerat region. When the 
Mohammedans from Persia, in their inarch of conquest, finally 
reached India, and set up the great Mogul empire in the valleys 
of the Ganges and the Indus, the Parsis were again in great 
danger. They feared the cruelty of the same hand which had 
conquered them at home, and had made them exiles forever 
from their native country. They allied themselves' with the 

* Monier Williams, article in Nineteenth Century, March, 1881 (American 
edition). 

t The best sources of information concerning the Parsis are the "Essays" of 
Monier Williams; Haug, '' Essays on the Sacred Language, Writings, and Re- 
ligion of the Parsis " (London, 1878) ; and Karaka, " History of the Parsis," 
2 vols. (London, 1884). 



136 



INDIKA. 



Hindu chiefs, and yet both Hindu and Parsi were conquered, 
and, as a political and military force, went down beneath the all- 
powerful Mogul chiefs. 
But they scattered, led 
quiet lives, engaged in 
commerce, and were per- 
mitted to preserve their 
faith. So soon as the 
English came to Western 
India the Parsis hailed 
them as the hope of the 
country. Prom that day 
to this they have admired 
the English rule in India, 
and have been its warmest 
supporters in all the dan- 
gers which have threat- 
ened the hold of Britain 
on her Indian possessions. 
That the Parsis have 
been an important factor 
in the development of the 
country during the last 
two centuries is owing 
entirely to the coming 
of Europeans. 
Their relation 
to this new ele- 
ment was at 
once prompt, 
close, and val- 
uable. No 
sooner did 
people from 
Por tu g al, 
France, and 

BRASS ORNAMENTAL CHAINS, MODERN GUJERAT. .tin gland a 

rive than they 
saw the wealth of the Parsis, their capacity for business, and 
their perfect reliability in all commercial matters. The wealthy 




THE PARSIS OF INDIA. 137 

region of Surat early invited trading companies ; and as this was 
the original home of the Parsi immigrants, these companies from 
Europe entered into relations with them, and thus each party- 
derived great advantages from the other. This was the begin- 
ning of the amazing commercial prosperity of the Parsis. While 
employed by the companies from Europe they laid the founda- 
tions for their own strong future in India. All the factories 
represented by foreign nations in Surat employed Parsis as their 
chief brokers, and could not have carried on their great opera- 
tions without them. They were able to accommodate differ- 
ences between the companies and the native rulers which other- 
wise would have proved fatally disastrous. In 1660, for exam- 
ple, Kastam Manak, the chief broker of the English factory in 
Surat, by a personal audience with the Mogul emperor Aurang- 
zeb, at his palace in Delhi, not only caused the removal of obsta- 
cles which the Hindu nobles were now placing in the way of the 
English, but secured a gift of land for building a factory and the 
freedom from duty of all imported goods. 

The large settlement of Parsis in Bombay occurred just be- 
fore the King of Portugal gave the island to the English as 
a marriage dowry to Catharine, the bride of Charles II. of 
England. From this time they enjoyed a new and broader life. 
They now had their first open field in India, on a perfect equal- 
ity with the .people of all other nations. While loyal to the 
country as an English possession, their future depended less 
upon any political relations than upon their capacity in com- 
merce. Here has been the department to which they have 
steadily adhered for two centuries, and to-day they stand at 
the head of the business of Bombay, and have the profound re- 
spect of every class. 

The Parsis have their sects — the Shenshais and the Kadmis. 
The former are in the majority. This division arose about one hun- 
dred and fifty years ago, when a Persian priest named Jamasp 
arrived in India, and found that his co-religionists differed from 
their brethren of Iran in their calculation of time by a full month, 
and in other minor points relating to their " liturgy." Serious 
disputes arose in consequence, which ended in the formation of 
the two sects — the Shenshais adhering to their own views, 
and the Kadmis adopting the opinions imported by Jamasp — 
and thus agreeing with their Persian brethren. The difference 



138 INDIRA. 

lies in their computation of time and in some slight variations 
in the forms of prayer.* 

One can easily recognize the Parsi wherever he meets him. 
He uses a dress different from his ancestors in Persia. His is a 
half-way costume between the Hindu and the European. He 
wears a loose garment of cotton, flannel, or silk, extending from 
his neck to a few inches below his knees. Many are now wear- 
ing light trousers — a late innovation. The round, dark, high hat, 
rising like a small cylinder, but without brim, is the head-cover- 
ing of the men. The ladies dress very becomingly, and are dis- 
tinguished for their jewels and rich robes. They differ entirely 
from the Mohammedan and Hindu women in the high and hon- 
orable estimate which the Parsi men place upon them. They, 
with their children, often accompany their husbands in afternoon 
drives out on the Malabar Hill and in other directions. Their 
equipages are richly appointed. One sees, also, many of the ladies 
driving out on afternoons along the Queen's Road, with as much 
style as though their spirited horses were whirling them through 
Hyde Park. The ladies wear a loose robe, and do not cover the 
head. With them, not less than with the men, the tendency is 
towards the adoption of European dress. They are getting to 
take their meals sitting in chairs instead of, as formerly, upon 
the floor. The household usages are gradually conforming to 
those of the English. They are very fond of many lights at 
home, and their rooms are hung with so many lamps that, at 
night, one can always distinguish the Parsi house. 

The most notable features of the Parsi population of Bombay 
are their rise to great wealth, their present control of the inter- 
nal commerce of the country, and their vast trade with China 
and Japan. Frequently, when a Parsi has risen to eminence 
and wealth, his son has continued his business with equal suc- 
cess, and entered upon all the official dignities of the father. 
Many prominent families, such as the Patels, the Benajis, the 
Modis, the Kamas, and the three brothers of the " Readymoney " 
family, have become synonyms for commercial success and prob- 
ity. Many of them trace their origin far back to their first days 
in India, when their fathers were fugitives from Mohammedan 

* " Journal Royal Asiatic Society," No. VIII. ; <l Indian Calendar for the 
Year 1872," pp. 46, 47. 








A PARSI OP BOMBAY. 



THE PARSIS OF INDIA. 141 

oppressors ; and some of them make a leap still further back, 
into Persia, their original home. In originating an important 
trade with the farther Asiatic ports, in ship-building, in railroad 
contracts, in the new and now immense cotton trade, and in sup- 
plying the army with provisions, they have not only given satis- 
faction to all classes, but have placed themselves in the first 
rank of the merchant princes of India. 

Their benevolence has been commensurate with their growth 
in wealth. There is nothing which a Parsi more enjoys than 
giving freely to a needy cause. His heart seems to be in his 
hand. He is touched by an appeal to his sympathy, and rich 
and poor alike give freely, according to their ability. Some of 
the largest and most beautiful charities and educational institu- 
tions of Bombay have been established by them as direct gifts 
to the country. The Benevolent Institution, founded by Sir Jam- 
shidji Jijibhai, consists of a group of male and female schools. 
This gentleman was the first Parsi baronet created by England, 
in recognition of his many benevolences and his sterling charac- 
ter. The Alexandra College, for Parsi ladies, was established by 
Manikji Khurshidji. Many of the studies pursued in European 
schools are in the curriculum. When one sees such an institu- 
tion as this, with all the appliances of an English educational 
establishment, it cannot be surprising that the higher Parsi 
classes should be rapidly adopting European ideas and usages. 

.Vikaj Merji raised, at great expense, a dam across the Ban- 
ganga Kiver, with other similar works, to shut out the salt-water 
tides, and thus make a large district in the Bombay presidency 
productive, because of the irrigation now first made possible. 
Mr. Dinsha, said to be the wealthiest Parsi in Bombay, has es- 
tablished many charities among his own people, and also in the 
general interests of the country. In 1883 he donated a hospital 
for the treatment and cure of horses, placing it under the charge 
of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. He 
has also established charitable dispensaries in Bombay and sev- 
eral places in Gujerat ; caused wells and tanks to be dug in Puna, 
Ahmadnagar, and other places ; founded charitable schools, li- 
braries, book-clubs ; provided means for poor students to receive 
a liberal education ; and built a hospital for lepers in Ratnigiri. 
Sir Kavasji Jahangir Readymoney made it his special dutj^ to 
alleviate the sufferings of the poor. Hospitals, lunatic asylums, 



142 INDIRA. 

dispensaries, the great building of the Elphinstone College, Uni- 
versity Hall, and the Puna Engineering College are only a few 
monuments to his princely liberality. Mr. Khurshidji repaired 
and extended the Chaupati asylum for the aged and blind ; es- 
tablished free dispensaries in Bombay and other places ; erected 
the Industrial School at Surat ; and built one of the handsomest 
ornaments to Bombay — the Flora Fountain. 

One of the most beautiful of the charities of Bombay is its 
sanitarium for the poorer Parsis, founded in the suburb of Colaba 
by Mervanji Panclay. I took special pains to visit this remark- 
able institution one evening, as the setting sun found me far out 
on the Colaba Point, where the spray dashes wildly up into one's 
face, and the sea breeze is constant the year round. My friend 
said : " Now let us stop, I want to show you something." 

We then entered a large building. It was divided into small 
rooms, but to each was attached a section of the broad veranda, 
which extends around the entire building. There was a bright- 
ness and airiness about the rooms, and surrounding the building, 
that made the premises exceedingly attractive. It was an insti- 
tution for convalescents, founded by a Parsi. Whenever an 
invalid is declared able to be removed, he can be taken to this 
place, which is directly upon the sea, and where the air is always 
fresh and invigorating. ~No provisions are taken. But the in- 
valid can take with him his entire family, and establish himself 
there, and the domestic group can live as cheaply as their taste 
or necessities require. There is no embarrassment whatever. I 
saw some invalids, and watched their children playing about 
them, and could detect in the appearance of the family the pres- 
sure of a life of poverty. It is certainly a generous impulse which 
gives this home by the sea to the sick among the poor of Bombay. 

One of the most remarkable features of the charity of the 
Parsis is, that as a rule it takes place during life. If done by 
bequest it is the exception. The Parsi wants to see the growth 
of his work. He measures his benefactions by the rule of his 
business. He looks for development, and when an emergency 
arises he wants to meet it, and wishes to see perfect security be- 
fore the vultures tear his spent body to pieces. I have never 
seen such extensive charities grouped within so narrow a com- 
pass as among these Parsis of Bombay. There seems to be no 
limit to their humane plans. The example has been set, and 



THE PARSIS OF INDIA. 143 

there is no probability that there will be decline in this magnifi- 
cent spirit. 

One must admit that the inscriptions on the benevolent insti- 
tutions, such as buildings and fountains, are very lavish in praise 
of the donors. Many words are employed, far more than a more 
quiet "Western taste would admit. Moreover, I have been told 
that much of this benefaction comes from a love of admiration, 
and possibly from an eye to business. But I am not here speak- 
ing of motives. One must approve the results, whatever be the 
impulses. Even supposing the causes somewhat selfish, is it not 
better to found a school or asylum for the poor, or some other 
humane institution, from an imperfect motive than not to do 
the good work at all ? 

But the charity of the natives of India is by no means confined 
to the Parsis. The native Hindus and Mohammedans are sure, 
on acquiring a fortune, to give away part of it to objects of char- 
ity or public usefulness. All the cities, and the very roadsides 
in the rural regions, furnish beautiful memorials of the spirit of 
charity among the natives of India.* 

The Parsis, perhaps largely as an outgrowth of their attention 
to education, have exhibited a great fondness for literature. 
Some of this community have distinguished themselves as au- 
thors, and their works have received foreign recognition. The 
Kahmunai Mazdayasnan Sabha, or Religious Reform Associa- 
tion, consists of a body of men who aim to elevate the social life 
of this community, and to restore some of the forgotten features 
of the system of Zoroaster, by the publication of works throw- 
ing light on the early history and doctrines of the Parsis. Their 
first issue was Sorabji Shapurji's work on the " Origin and His- 
tory of the Zend-Avesta," which has been followed by many 
others, all thoroughly scholarly works, and almost our sole source 
of information on many accessories of the Parsi history and doc- 
trines. Dastur Peshotanji has published a Pahlavi grammar and 
other important works. In this ancient language lie buried some 
of the greatest Persian literary treasures, and it is no wonder 
that Parsi scholars are endeavoring to bring them out of their 
long obscurity. The Pahlavi was the ruling Persian tongue dur- 
ing the Sassanian dynasty. Dastur Jamaspji has issued four 

* Temple, "India in 1880," p. 128. 



144 INDIRA. 

volumes of his Pahlavi Dictionary. Dastur Hoshangji Jamaspji 
has given to the public the texts of an old Zend Pahlavi Glos- 
sary, an old Pahlavi Pazand Glossary, and the Arda-Virofi- 
JSTama. To Ervad Kavasji Kanga we owe Gujerati translations 
of the Yendidad, the Khorda - Avesta, and even an English 
translation of Anquetil du Perron's account of his visit to India. 
The most learned Life of Zoroaster in literature has been writ- 
ten by Kharshedji Rastamji Kame. He has founded a periodi- 
cal, the Zartlioski Abkyas (Zoroastrian Studies), which aims to 
introduce into India the fruits of German scholarship in the line 
of Oriental subjects. 

The Bombay Times, now the Times of India, and the best 
paper in the western part of the country, if not of all India, 
owes its existence largely to the enterprise of Framji Kavasji. 
Karaka's History of the Parsis, a work which has been of great 
service to me in the examination of this strange people, is by far 
the best account we have of these Indian descendants of the an- 
cient Persians. Some of the Parsi publications appeared in 
Bombay, but it is not uncommon for them to see the light first 
in London. Haug, in giving an account of the Zoroastrian stud- 
ies among the Hindu Parsis of our day, devotes an important 
section to this description, in which he pays a high tribute to 
their scholarship and candor.* 

The present Parsi faith is the system of Zoroaster. Mono- 
theism lies at its base. Haug says : " The leading idea of his 
theology was Monotheism ; . that is, there are not many gods, 
but only one. The principle of his speculative philosophy was 
Dualism ; that is, the supposition of two primeval causes of the 
real world and of the intellectual. His normal philosophy moved 
in the triad of thought, word, and deed." This idea is confirmed 
by the realistic statement of Herodotus : " The Persians have 
no images of the gods, nor temples, nor altars, and consider the 
use of them a sign of folly. This comes, I think, from their not 
believing the gods to have the same nature with men." All the 
Parsi writers are emphatic on this point of Monotheism. They 
claim that, before the appearance of Zoroaster, there were tend- 
encies among his people to idolatry, but that the entire effort of 

* " Studies in the Sacred Language, Writings, and Religion of the Parsis," 
pp. 54-62. 



THE PARSIS OF INDIA. 145 

his life was to counteract theui. The present Parsis, basing their 
doctrines on the most ancient writings of their ancestors, believe 
in the resurrection of the body, future life, immortality of the 
soul, and rewards and punishments. They reverence the sun, 
fire, water, and air. They pay such devotion to fire, that, to a 
stranger, they seem to regard it as a proper object of adoration. 
But their scholars repudiate the supposition, saying that they 
only regard fire as a manifestation of Deity. Karaka, speaking 
for his co-religionists, says : " God, according to the Parsi faith, 
is the emblem of glory, refulgence, and light ; and in this view a 
Parsi, while engaged in prayer, is directed to stand before the 
fire, or to turn his face towards the sun, because they appear 
to be the most proper symbols of the Almighty." My Parsi 
fellow- voyagers, on the steamer Sutlej, performed their morning 
devotions at sunrise, and always took care to turn their faces to 
the east when making them. One cannot see the minute atten- 
tion of any Parsi to fire, and his keeping the sacred flame always 
burning in his temples and home, without firmly believing that 
the regard for fire amounts to devotion. It seems to be, in their 
sense, an original divinity rather than a simple emanation. 

The Zend-Avesta is the prime source of the Parsi theology 
and moral system. It abounds in monstrosities, and to sift them 
is no easy task. Mitchell has done this successfully,* though his 
work has not the scholarly completeness of the very important 
work of Haug,f to whom European scholars are most indebted 
for a survey of the whole range of the Parsi sacred books. 
Mitchell says that we can find in the Zend-Avesta all three 
systems — Monotheism, Dualism, and Polytheism. Every thing- 
good in creation is, by its precepts, held to be worthy of wor- 
ship. The following prayer, offered on the last* day of the 
month by the devout Parsis, certainly favors the largest idea of 
the plurality of gods : " We sacrifice to the eternal and luminous 
space. We sacrifice to the bright garonma (heaven). We sacri- 
fice to the sovereign place of the eternal weal. We sacrifice to 
the Chinvat bridge, made by Mazda. We sacrifice to Apam 
Napat, the swift-horsed, the high and shining lord, who has 
many wives. We sacrifice to the water made by Mazda, and 



* " The Zend-Avesta and Religion of the Parsis." London, n. d. 
t " Essays on the Parsis." London, 1878. 
10 



146 INDIRA. 

holy. We sacrifice to the golden stall, homa. We sacrifice to 
the enlivening homa, who keeps death far away. We sacrifice 
to the pious and good Blessing. AVe sacrifice to the awful, pow- 
erful, and wise god. We sacrifice to all the holy gods of the 
heavenly world. I praise, I invoke, I meditate on ; and we sac- 
rifice to the good, the strong, the beneficent Fravashis of the holy 
ones." 

In the Parsi theology there are spirits good and evil, who fill 
all space. The water expressed from the homa plant is the chief 
article of sacrifice. The ancient Persians sacrificed animals. 
Herodotus says that Xerxes sacrificed on the site of Troy "a 
thousand oxen, while the Magi poured out libations in honor of 
the ancient heroes." * But all animal sacrifices have long since 
ceased. The ceremony of offering the homa is performed not 
only in the fire-temples of the present Parsis, but in their private 
houses, twice a day. Great attention is paid to bodily purity. 
Ablutions are frequent. The touching of a dead body is regard- 
ed as especially defiling. The moment life is extinct the body is 
supposed to be possessed by the fiend ISTasu, who can be expelled 
only by bringing up a white dog. The dog immediately sends 
the demon back to hell. Each day of the month is consecrated 
to a special divinity, and has its own formal prayers. 

The Zend-Avesta has some good teachings, which contrast 
strongly with other Oriental faiths. For example, it ascribes 
no immoral acts to the object of worship ; sanctions no immoral 
acts as part of its worship ; none of its worship is marked by 
cruel acts ; it exhorts its believers to contend against all pro- 
ductions of the evil principle ; and declares its faith in the final 
triumph of the good over the evil. On the other hand, in the 
Zend-Avesta there is no idea of the fatherhood of God, of the 
heinousness of sin, of expiation, of salvation from sin, of guilt 
consequent upon sin, of divine comfort in sorrow, of the divine 
purpose in bereavement, and of self-denial and self-sacrifice. 

In the religion of Zoroaster there is large place given to the 
dog. The Avesta devotes a whole division to a description of 
his excellences, and the light in which he is placed leads inev- 
itably to the conclusion that the dog is, in the Parsi mind, a 
sacred animal. During the recitation of the funeral address the 

* Book vii., p. 43. 



THE PAR8I8 OF INDIA. 



147 



face of the deceased is exposed three or four times to a dog's 
gaze. In some mysterious way, this animal is supposed to be a 
guide to the departed to the final heaven, and to guard against 
the approach of evil spirits on the way thither. Haug says : 
"A man who touches a dead body, the contagious impurity 
of which has not been previously checked by holding towards 
the corpse a peculiar kind of dog, is said 
to be at once visited by a spectre rep- 
resenting death itself ; this is called 
' drukhsh nasush,' or the destructive cor- 
ruption. ... It is called the ' four-eyed- 
dog,' a yellow spot on each side of its 
eyelids being considered an additional 
eye. He has yellow ears, and the color 
of the rest of his body varies from yel- 
low to white. To his eyes a kind of 
magnetic influence is ascribed." 

The Avesta assigns special sanctity 
to the house-dog and the shepherd's 
dog : " To kill one of either is a crime 
of grossest character. Sweetness and 
fatness will never return to the place 
where it has been committed until the 
murderer has been smitten to death, and 
the holy soul of the dog has been offered 
a sacrifice for three days and nights, 
with fire blazing, with the baresma tied, 
and the homa uplifted."* 

If any Parsi kill a water-dog or otter 
(uclra), he must be unmercifully pun- 
ished, for the reason that this animal is 
believed to contain the souls of a thou- 
sand male and a thousand female dogs. 

The perpetrator, to atone for his crime, must receive ten thousand 
lashes with a horsewhip, or kill ten thousand animals of the bad 
creation, such as snakes, mice, lizards, or frogs, and carry ten 
thousand loads of wood to the sacred fire. 

Next to their splendid homes and the large public buildings 




A PA11SI CHILD. 



Vaud, xiii., pp. 167, 172. 



148 INDIKA. 

which the Parsis have built and given to Bombay, the Towers 
of Silence are the most notable reminder of them in the city. 
They are large circular structures of heavy black granite, in an 
elevated part of the suburban city. Here all the Parsi dead are 
disposed of. There are five of these towers, standing in a group 
on a hill a hundred feet high, and rising above the palms' and 
cypresses which grow in beautiful stateliness about them. The 
better way is to take them on returning from the drive out to 
Malabar Hill. The carriage-way is magnificent, built at the 
expense of a Parsi, Sir Jamshidji Jijibhai, who also donated one 
hundred thousand square yards of land on the north and east 
sides of the towers. The view becomes wondrously beautiful 
as one ascends, for it embraces the great sea-front of Bombay 
and the suburbs on either horn of the brilliant crescent. On 
reaching the end of the drive you ascend a flight of eighty steps, 
where there is a notice — "None but Parsis may enter." But 
the Parsi secretary gave me a permit, which allowed me to walk 
at leisure about the beautiful grounds and among the flowers, and 
take one of the many convenient seats, where the marvellous view 
can be enjoyed without disturbance. But no permit allows one 
to enter either of the towers. Not even a Parsi can do it. He 
would be defiled without hope of purification. The entrance of 
a bier is a frequent occurrence. I did not see one, and there- 
fore must trust to Eastwick's description : " A bier will be seen 
carried up the steps by four Nasr Salars, or carriers of the dead, 
with two bearded men following them closely, and perhaps a 
hundred Parsis in white robes walking two and two in proces- 
sion. The bearded men, who come next to the corpse, are the 
only persons who enter the tower. They wear gloves, and when 
they touch the bones it is with tongs. On leaving the tower, 
after depositing the corpse on the grating within, they proceed 
to the purifying place, where they wash, and leave the clothes 
they have worn in a tower built for that express purpose." * 

The body is borne up a flight of steps into the opening lead- 
ing into the mysterious interior of the tower. I was shown a 
model of a tower, by which I could see the internal construction, 
although I was not permitted to examine a real one. The larg- 
est tower is two hundred and seventy-six feet in circumference 

* " Hand-book of the Bombay Presidency," pp. 141, 142. 



THE PARSIS OF INDIA. 



149 



and twenty-six feet above the ground. There are three series 
of fluted grooves, which constitute the stone flooring of the 
tower. They diminish in size as they approach the centre. 
The outer circle is for the bodies of men ; the second is for those 
of women ; and the third, being smallest, is for the bodies of 
children. The descent towards the centre of the tower is grad- 
ual, and the grooves where the bodies are laid conduct the water 
to the centre, which is a great circular pit or well. Just as soon 
as a body is laid in the tower the bearers return, and" the many 
vultures, which are always flying about or resting in the trees, 
in expectancy of a feast, pounce down upon it and tear the flesh 
rapidly from the bones. There are from five hundred to a thou- 
sand of these vultures, and the human body is their chief food. 




PARSI TOWERS OF SILENCE. 



They strip a body in about an hour, so that nothing is left but 
the skeleton. After the bones are completely dried beneath the 
tropical sun the carriers go in, and with tongs take them to the 
pit in the centre, and cast them down. There they soon decom- 
pose, a process probably hastened by strong chemicals. From 
the bottom of the pit there are pipes which connect with deep 
outstanding wells, which are underlaid with thick strata of char- 
coal. Through this bed the water finds its way, purified, into 
channels leading out into the sea. 

This method of disposing of the bodies of the dead is a funda- 
mental part of the Parsi faith. That vultures should destroy 
the lifeless body has been from time immemorial a usage, and 
no Parsi would think of burial or cremation. The reasons which 
10* 



150 INDIKA. 

are given by the community for their method were once present- 
ed to Monier Williams, who, when visiting the Bombay Towers 
of Silence, asked Nasarvanji Bairaniji, a high ecclesiastical officer, 
why such a method of destroying the body was resorted to and 
adhered to with such fidelity. He received the following reply : 
" Our prophet Zoroaster, who lived three thousand years ago, 
taught us to regard the elements as symbols of the Deity. Earth, 
fire, water, he said, ought never, under any circumstances, to be 
defiled by contact with putrefying flesh. Naked, he said, we 
came into the world, and naked we ought to leave it. But the 
decaying particles of our bodies should be dissipated as rapidly 
as possible, and in such a way that neither Mother Earth nor the 
beings she supports should be contaminated in the slightest de- 
gree. In fact, our prophet was the greatest of health-officers, 
and, following his sanitary laws, we build our towers on the 
hills, above all human habitations. We spare no expense in 
constructing them of the hardest materials, and we expose our 
putrescent bodies in open stone receptacles, resting on fourteen 
feet of solid granite, not necessarily to be consumed by vultures, 
but to be dissipated in the speediest possible manner, and with- 
out the possibility of polluting the earth or contaminating a sin- 
gle living being dwelling thereon. God, indeed, sends the vult- 
ures, and, as a matter of fact, these birds do their appointed work 
much more expeditiously than millions of insects would do if we 
committed our bodies to the ground. In a sanitary point of view, 
nothing could be more perfect than our plan. Even the rain- 
water which washes our skeletons is conducted by channels into 
purifying charcoal. Here in these five towers rest the bones of 
all the Parsis that have lived in Bombay for the last two hun- 
dred years. We form a united body in life, and are united in 
death." 

Of the effect of this communication on Professor Williams, 
and the impression derived from a second visit to the towers, 
in the same year, 1876, he gives the following testimony : " My 
second visit has confirmed me in my opinion that the Parsi 
method of disposing of dead bodies is as perfect as anything 
can be in a sanitary point of view. There is no spot in Bombay 
where the breezes appear so healthful as in the beautiful gar- 
dens which surround the towers. Nothing during all my trav- 
els throughout India, from Cashmere to Cape Comorin, has 



THE PARSIS OF INDIA. 151 

instructed me more than my two visits to the Parsi Towers of 
Silence." 

This may be quite true, and yet it is hard to forget the loath- 
some, scene of hungry vultures ready to swoop down upon the 
body of a dead person the moment it has been left alone in the 
Silent Tower, and glutting themselves upon such prey. I have 
brought home from India the memory of these hungry and wait- 
ing vultures as one of the most repulsive pictures which I ever 
gazed upon. One cannot help thinking of such an unpleasant 
scene, with all its associations, much longer than of the beauti- 
ful gardens in which the Towers of Silence stand, and the rare 
and varied scene of the city and the sea and its outlying emer- 
ald islands. 

There is nothing of which the typical Parsi is prouder, next 
to the creed he gets from Zoroaster, than of his historical tradi- 
tions. He loves to think of his old kings, Cyrus, Cambyses, 
Darius, and all the rest, when the world quaked beneath their 
armies. He remembers with peculiar joy the time when Per- 
sia's eye dared to look upon even Europe as a fit field for con- 
quest, and that his own Xerxes fought the Greeks in the Bay 
of Salamis and within sight of Athens. His favorite study, as 
we have seen, deals with the past. His people, though exiles, 
regard themselves as the banished descendants of a race of war- 
riors and heroes, who made immortal many a battle-field of old 
Persia and of the lands she had the prowess to invade. Even 
after defeat by the Mohammedans their fathers were not willing 
to die without a struggle, and Moore tells only the simple truth 
when he says of them, when only a shattered army, 

" But none, of all who owned the chief's command, 
Rushed to that battle-field with bolder hand 
Or sterner hate than Iran's outlawed men, 
Her worshippers of fire." 

That the Parsis of to-day, now that the light of science is break- 
ing upon them, should be making inquiries into the genesis of their 
faith and the almost lost threads of their history, is a most sig- 
nificant fact. They have found many things to astonish them. 
The old Pahlavi literature has revealed to them many doctrinal 
crudities which the better minds would gladly ignore as author- 
ity on worship and creed, and which are deviations from the 



152 INDIRA. 

severer code of Zoroaster. But these candid inquiries can only 
result in good. They will suggest the striking conlrast between 
the conglomerate Parsi religion and Christianity, while the con- 
tact with European Christians will constantly lessen the preju- 
dice against the Christian religion, and make the Parsis more 
accessible to the Gospel. In the plane of moral ideas, they stand 
so far above the Hindus that we must regard them as occupying 
a midway position between Christianity and Buddhism. 

We cannot but believe that the Parsi, as he studies more 
closely the differences between his own faith and the Christian, 
will, in due time, come to accept the latter. It must be ad- 
mitted, however, that the Parsis have proven very inaccessi- 
ble to the Gospel. It is said, that of all the Christians in 
the presidency of Bombay, not more than a dozen are from 
the Parsi community. But Mitchell, who has studied the pre- 
vailing tendencies among the people during his residence 
in Bombay, has a hopeful view of their Christian future. He 
says : " The immense disparity between Christ and Zoroaster is 
dawning, we believe, on that interesting people, the Parsis of 
India. They have been clinging to their ancient faith from a 
feeling of nationality rather than of religion — from tradition 
more than conviction ; but immense changes are certainly at 
hand. But we believe that, as the Magi from the East, who 
probably were Zoroastrians, hastened to lay their gold, frankin- 
cense, and myrrh at the feet of the new-born Redeemer, so, ere 
long, the Parsis will in all probability be the first of Eastern 
races to take upon them, as a race, the easy yoke of Christ." 



CHAPTER XIV. 

A SAIL TO THE CAVE- TEMPLES OF ELEPHANT A. 

The most charming excursion from Bombay is the sail to the 
island of Elephanta. The gliding out of Bombay harbor, past 
the shipping, and in full view of the many picturesque islands 
which lie out in the mouth of the bay, is an experience at once 
delightful and novel. The semi-circular mountain-range forming 




ENTRANCE TO THE CAVES OE ELEPHANTA. 



the magnificent background of Bombay appears altogether dif- 
ferent from what it seemed when seen from the deck of the 
incoming steamer. Our little steam-launch, provided by my 
thoughtful host, Mr. Fido, made rapid way through the ship- 



154 INDIKA. 

ping, and in clue time brought us out into the sweep of the In- 
dian Ocean. We soon finished our six miles to Elephanta, and 
were ready to drop anchor. Then we entered small boats, and 
drew up to the long, narrow pier by which the visitor makes his 
landing on the island. Here we were met by a group of boys, 
offering for sale some hanging-birds' nests, petrifactions, little 
marine curios, and other articles gathered on the island and 
about its shore. My investments on this occasion were confined 
to the hanging-birds' nests. On leaving the pier we ascended a 
flight of one hundred and eighteen steps. Then our path went 
through a shaded way. After a walk of a quarter of a mile we 
reached the bungalow of the superintendent of the caves, who is a 
retired English officer. He was very courteous, went w T ith us to 
the temples, and took with him his drawings of the reliefs, to- 
gether with an excellent book on the history of the caves. Here 
I heard my first narrative of the Indian snakes. The predeces- 
sor of the present superintendent, likewise an Englishman, was 
one day sleeping in his chair, beneath the shade of the palms 
near the bungalow. His hand was hanging from the arm of his 
chair, and must have been near the ground. A cobra crawled 
along, and bit the hand. The sting caused the man's death in a 
few hours. 

The first view of the vast cave-temples is a most pleasing sur- 
prise. The great portal bursts suddenly upon the eye. The 
vegetation, which is as luxuriant as in Ceylon, crowds from the 
hills down to the edge of the temples. Shrubs and vines in great 
profusion hang over the entrance, and surround it on all sides 
with a rich and varied drapery. There is, first of all, the great 
facade to the main temple. It is supported by two immense 
pillars and two pilasters. These make three entrances to the 
temple. The great temple itself is one hundred and thirty feet 
long, and one hundred and twenty-eight feet broad. On either 
side there is a large chapel. The temple proper has immense 
supporting columns, twenty -six in all, with sixteen pilasters. 
The temple, and even the columns and statues, are cut out of 
the solid native mass of porphyry. 

A peculiarity of every part of the structure is the variety of 
the architecture. The columns vary in size, ornamentation, and 
separating distances. Even the height differs slightly, the dis- 
tance from the ceiling to the roof ranging from fifteen feet to 



A SAIL TO THE CAVE -TEMPLES OF ELEPHANT A. 



157 



seventeen and a half feet. Some of the pillars are fluted and 
others square, and many are surrounded by ornamental fillets. 
The capitals are overhung with graceful leaves. The pillars are 
connected by beams, which give unity to the whole interior. In 
addition to the main temple and the supporting pillars, there are 
two smaller rooms, probably designed to contain the utensils and 
other belongings of the service. 

These immense spaces in the solid rock are the real wonder 
of the caves of Elephanta. The sculptures form remarkable re- 
liefs upon the walls. All the figures are of colossal size. The 
day when they were hewn by many hands, in the remote times, 
was one for great objects. Only the gigantic and preternatural 
were aimed at. 

The cave-temples of Elephanta, Karli, Ellora, and other places 
did not proceed from one common religious movement, nor did 
they take their origin in the same period. The Indian cave-tem- 
ples belong to two classes — Buddhist and Brahmanical. Those 
of Elephanta were tributes to the Brahmanical worship. Around 
one chapel, on the outside, are figures 
of doorkeepers, resting on dwarfs, a 
picture of high-caste Hindus tramp- 
ling upon the low-caste. The prin- 
cipal mural figure is the three-faced 
image of the Hindu triad. It is only 
a bust, and yet is nineteen feet high. 
It represents the original Hindu di- 
vinity, in his three personal charac- 
ters, as Brahma, Yishnu, and Siva. 
These three are manifestations of 
Brahm in his relation to man and 
the world. The central face, with vishnu. 

an exquisitely carved jewel on the 

breast, represents Brahma as the creative principle. That on the 
right, as one stands in front of the colossal bust, represents Yishnu, 
the preserver of life, holding in his right hand, as a fit emblem, 
the lotus in full flower. The face on the left is that of Rudra, 
or the destroyer. He is quietly smiling on the cobra cli capello 
which winds around his arm and is looking savagely upon his 
face. There are two figures at the portals here, both of them 
over twelve feet high. They represent doorkeepers. 




158 



INDIKA. 



In another compartment, on the left of the three-headed Siva, 
are figures of Siva and his wife Parvati. All these are of gigan- 
tic size, and illustrate the sacred mysteries of the Brahmanical 
faith, such as the marriage of Siva and Parvati ; the birth of 
Ganesh, the eldest son of Siva ; Ravan, the demon king of Cey- 
lon, attempting to remove Kailas, the heavenly hill, to his own 
kingdom ; the destruction of the sacrifice of Daksha, the son of 
Brahma, born from the latter's thumb ; Bhairava, an incarnation 
of Siva, to oppose Yishnu's incarnation as Narsingh, the man- 
lion ; and, last of all, Siva as an ascetic. 




A CHAPEL IN THE GREAT CAVES OF ELEPHANTA. 



These various figures, all of which are carved with great care, 
have been badly mutilated. Some writers attribute the wanton 
mutilation to the Portuguese, who, it is claimed, found the tem- 
ples in perfect condition. But no author, not even the painstak- 
ing Wilson, has been able to furnish the proof that the charge 
is well-founded. The date of these particular excavations is 
supposed to range between the eighth and twelfth centuries of 
our era. They form a part of the great aggressive system by 
which the Brahmans sought to propagate their faith throughout 



A SAIL TO THE CAVE- TEMPLES OF ELEPHANTA. 



159 



India. The mould has gathered on the walls here, and in some 
of the spans of the temple the water has oozed down from the 
roofs and covered the floor. Even with the powerful rays of 
the Indian sun to dry it, the water filters through the rock above 
so fast, and falls to the floor in such quantity that the walking. 
is anything but pleasant. 

The ornamentation of some of the figures is most elaborate. 
In the female statues and reliefs one sees a calmness of feature, 




SIVA, THE DESTROYER. 



an ease and simplicity of the whole countenance, which make 
many of them singularly attractive. The ideas which lie back 
of all are abhorrent in the extreme ; but the way in which the 
sculptor has wrought out his plans is different. He has sought 
to make these incarnations of the great Siva pleasing to the wor- 
shipper, that he might be won to them, and to higher adoration. 
Before any of the existing Indian temples above ground were 
made, we may well suppose these great cave-temples were hewn 
out of the solid rock. If Hindus did the chief work — and there 
is no doubt they did — they must have had the assistance of 



160 INDIRA. 

Greeks and Bactrians.* The delicacy of the work shows the 
steady chisel and trained eye of the Greek, while the figures 
themselves, and the ideas which they symbolize, belong to the 
fundamentals of Brahman theology. 

No finer picture of the passing away of the old, and the com- 
ing in of the new, in India, can be presented than in this scene 
at Elephanta. Here are immense spaces, cut out by patient 
hands in the elder days, with all the reliefs and statues which 
wealth, labor, religious zeal, and the long years could command. 
Probably the hills in the neighborhood were adorned with other 
important structures, either beneath them or upon their slopes. 
But, if so, they have long been overgrown and concealed by the 
wild vegetation, and especially by the rich creepers which every- 
where abound. Possibly there are excavated temples hereabouts 
whose very existence has not been known to any one for cen- 
turies. Our guide, the English superintendent, showed us a re- 
markable inscription which he had very lately discovered beneath 
the mould on the ceiling of one of the larger halls. 

Niebuhr, in the last century, was the first to take back to 
Europe the news of the marvels of the strange temples of Ele- 
phanta. Since then much light has been thrown on their mean- 
ing. But the faith which the excavations and their imagery 
suggest is in rapid decline. The conquering Christian nation 
has taken charge of the ruins, and provides a man to exhibit 
them, as an object of only antiquarian interest. Out in the 
beautiful roadstead lie the vessels from the many ports of that 
same nation, stopping here for a time, and then going to Aus- 
tralia or China or Southern Africa, or homeward to the little isl- 
and which rules at its antipodes. One turns away from such a 
reminder of a dying creed, with all its savage monstrosities, with 
hope to the new. That one little Christian chapel, on Grant 
Eoad, in Bombay, has richer associations and larger possibilities 
than all the cave-temples of India. 

When we had carefully examined all the antiquities of Ele- 
phanta we wandered down towards the water's edge. The ladies 
of our company had anticipated our wants by bringing a sub- 
stantial lunch, as there is no provision on the island for the 
accommodation of strangers. Our provisions were spread out 



* Wilson, "Religious Excavations of Western India," p. 12. 



A SAIL TO THE CAVE- TEMPLES OF ELEPHANT A. \§\ 

beneath the fronds of a friendly palm. Here we were fanned 
by the gentle breeze from the sea, and had before us the wonder- 
ful scene, in the distance, of Bombay, the supporting Ghats in 
the far background, and, near by, the islands which throng the 
bay. As the evening drew on we entered our little boats and 
rowed out to our launch, in which we glided back to Bombay. 




11 



LOTA (DRINKING -VESSEL), SILVER INCRUSTATION ON 
COPPER, TANJOR. 



CHAPTEK XV. 

THE CAVE-TEMPLE OF KARLI. 

The surprises in stone greet the traveller in India on every 
hand. The farther back the massive temples take us, the purer 
becomes the faith which they represent. The inevitable ten- 
dency of all false faiths is towards a darker depth. I had no 
suspicion of the strong Indian illustrations until I had seen the 
temples themselves, in both Northern and Southern India, and 
studied the times which produced them. The eldest — as well 
those cut from the mountains as those constructed of quarried 
stone — prove that the gross and grotesque Hindu paganism of 
these later days is only a vile lapse from the early and better 
faiths. There is not an ancient temple in India which does not 
reveal the fact that the idolatry of to-day is the vile progeny of 
a once purer and more intellectual religion. The debasement of 
the modern idolatry beneath that of its ancestry is a picture pre- 
sented in stone from one end of India to the other. The truth 
forces itself on the mind, in that country as well as throughout 
the East, that a false faith is unable to rise a single step, and 
that it is compelled downward by a law it cannot resist, give it 
never so many centuries to make the effort. 

Of this downward tendency of false faiths the cave-temples, 
wherever one sees them, are most striking examples. The monks 
of Albania and other regions between the Adriatic and the iEge- 
an seas dug out many a cell in the early Christian days, and 
honeycombed great regions, where they spent their lives, and 
where they were laid away when the monotonous life was over. 
Then, in Egyptian Thebes, for centuries the great Pharaohs 
hewed for themselves sepulchres under the mountains, where 
they and their loved ones could lie as splendidly in death as they 
had lived along the plain. But India stands alone in convert- 
ing the mountains into spacious temples. The Hindus have 
adorned these temples with all the wealth of massive and yet 



THE CAVE-TEMPLE OF KARLI. 



165 



careful sculpture which distinguished the Aryans before their 
gross idolatry. 

The Karli cave-temple is of the same general class as those of 
Elephanta ; but it is very different in construction. Not even 
excepting those of Ajanta and Ellora, it is by far the finest Bud- 
dhist cave-temple in the country.* To reach it, one takes the 




THE KAILAS— CAVE-TEMPLES OF ELLORA. 



train from Bombay and goes nearly a hundred miles eastward, 
on the general line to Calcutta. The road soon ascends, and the 
air becomes rarer and more bracing. Many a view from the 
car window reminds one of the Swiss scenery about Meyringen, 
while the well-tilled vales suggest as fine fields as ever a patient 
Hanoverian won from Harz boulders, or the phlegmatic Olden- 



11^ 



* Temple, " India in 1880," p. 28. 



166 INDIRA. 

burger from Frisian bog. The train makes a long climb, until 
at last you overlook the broad and picturesque Marhatta region, 
where Arthur Wellesley won his spurs, and began to find his 
path towards Waterloo. Up these very mountains he drew his 
supplies, and awaited his reinforcements before marching on 
Puna, and adding another dominion to the English sceptre in 
India. 

The town of Khandala stands at the height of the range, and 
its pure air attracts many of the easier citizens of Bombay to 
spend the summer. It is a beautiful place, well shaded with 
palms, and having magnificent roads. From Khandala to the 
Karli cave-temple we had a ride of five miles on horseback. 
We had some difficulty about horses. Our message, sent out 
two days before from Bombay, seemed to have had no result. 
A halt of a half-hour brought three horses, however, and we 
were soon in rapid motion. It was not long before we were 
compelled to leave the carriage-road, and take a path through 
the fields towards the range of mountains on our left. By the 
time we were getting accustomed to the meanderings of the road 
we had to give up our horses and begin climbing in downright 
earnest. 

Now a climb in India, even to see its finest temple-cave, is no 
small task. Only a month before, in Egypt, I had climbed the 
pyramid of Cheops, with the help of three propelling and pro- 
voking Arabs ; but that labor was slight compared with the 
much shorter climb up to the portal of the Karli cave-temple. 
It was on a day late in the Indian November, but my white 
pith helmet, with folds of light cloth coiled about it, and then a 
double umbrella of gray cloth and white cotton within, were a 
poor defence against the sun. My genial companions, the Rev. 
Mr. Fox and the Rev. Mr. Hard, had been long enough in the 
country to endure almost any number of sunbeams which might 
fall on them, and yet I noticed that, when we reached the cool 
and shaded vestibule, and threw ourselves down on the first 
broken stones we saw, and looked up into the face of the colos- 
sal stone goddess, who sat on an elephant of stone and bade us 
welcome, my friends were glad enough to rest. 

The temple walls, and every part of their adorning sculpture, 
are hewn out of the stone mountain. Were there no pagan dei- 
ties in stone, no reminders of any early worship, and were the 



THE CAVE-TEMPLE OF KABLI. 167 

country any other than India, one would take this wonderful 
structure for a superb cathedral. Not many serious changes 
would need to be made in order to convert it into an English 
minster. Fergusson says that " the building resembles an early 
Christian church in its arrangements, while all the dimensions 
are similar to those of the choir of Norwich Cathedral." * The 
nave is one hundred and twenty-four feet long, forty-five feet 
broad, and forty-six feet from floor to ceiling. There are aisles 
on either side of the temple, separated from the nave by octag- 
onal pillars. The capital of each pillar is crowned with two 
kneeling elephants, on whose backs are seated two figures rep- 
resenting the divinities to whom the temple is dedicated. These 
are of beautiful features, as, indeed, are all the representations 
of deities in the Karli cave- temple. There is nothing of that 
repulsive sculpture which one sees at Puna and in the modern 
Hindu pagodas in the south. I saw no figures which were in 
part human and in part beast-like. Each was true to its class, 
from vestibule back to altar. Now the altar and the place 
where it stands keep up the resemblance to a Christian church. 
Behind it there are seven pillars, which separate it from what, 
in a church, would correspond with the choir. There are, alto- 
gether, thirty-eight columns in the temple. The grandest is the 
large lion-pillar in front, which has sixteen sides, and is sur- 
mounted with four Mons. 

All this great recess has been cut from the solid rock, which 
seems to be nothing softer than porphyry itself. The statuary 
is massive relief, and consists of figures also cleft from the rock, 
like Thorwaldsen's lion in Lucerne. The great pillars are chaste- 
ly proportioned columns, both base and capital proving that they 
have not been introduced, but, like all other stone portions of 
the temple, have been cut from the solid mass of which the whole 
mountain consists. They are part and parcel of flooring and 
ceiling. There is an outward porch, or vestibule, fifty-two feet 
wide and fifteen deep, and on the heavy molding above there 
are figures of a man, a woman, and a dwarf. All this, too, like 
the whole spacious temple itself, has been patiently cut from 
firm rock. 

The only thing which is not of native rock is a wooden cover- 

* " Rock-cut Temples of India," p. 27. 



168 INDIKA. 

ing or ceiling. This has been the puzzle of all the toilers in In- 
dian archaeology, and they seem to-day to be no nearer a solu- 
tion of the difficulty than when they began. The entire imme- 
diate covering of the temple is of teak, a native wood, almost 
the only one which resists the white ant and every Indian insect. 
As you look up, and take in the whole nave, it reminds you at 
once of the inverted hull of a ship. The cross-timbers and the 
boards have that appearance, and yet the more one examines 
the whole of the wooden umbrella, and compares it with the rest 
of the temple, the more exact is its correspondence with the stone 
of which all the rest of the sacred building consists. The finish- 
ing of the wood-work is of the same style as that of the stone. 
As to the reason why the wood was put above this wonderful 
cave-temple, no one can answer. The ceiling was already of 
stone, and many a foot beneath the roots of the trees which 
waved on the mountain-top. Nothing could add to the massive 
and attractive character of the whole. It is not likely that this 
wooden covering was added later, long after the work was fin- 
ished and the temple had been used. On the other hand, Thom- 
as, Burgess, and Fergusson, the best searchers among the an- 
tiquities of India, began their interpretation of the Karli temple 
by supposing the wood to be a later addition. But after their 
examination, more closely conducted, they concluded it was put 
there at the time the temple was excavated from the mountain- 
side. Fergusson's reasoning, that " the design of the ceiling is 
repeated in stone in all the niches in the temple front," seems to 
settle all doubts. Why may not that ceiling, made of adamantine 
teak, have been placed there as a shield against dampness? I 
believe this to be the correct solution. Kain from May to Octo- 
ber is abundant throughout Lower India, and water would trickle 
down through crevices in spite of every precaution. In the cave- 
temples of Elephanta, where there is no wooden umbrella, every 
floor is at least damp, while some are wet, and even shoe-deep 
in water. But the floor of the Karli temple is perfectly dry. 
Not a drop of water could fall from any part of the ceiling. 
Should dampness collect, and even become a slight stream, the 
water would find its way down the sides, without dampening 
the whole floor. 

But who knows when this, the Karli temple, was built ? This 
is another question which none have been able to answer. Of 



iisiil 1 *: i; ill ; 

il ■ ' 'ill 

ili 1 ' '' ' "if 

llliiii si! ■ mm mm 





■VP* 



,„ i H| -ii'iidr'jl 



■i 1 1 ,, a 








vk\ •Aim 



^^ 



■ Hi -. -m 




i Ml , I ' • 

Ill 1 ' ft 

1 lit „ ?ij n 4 ifiil 



S*V- 







VESTIBULE OP THE GREAT CAVE-TEMPLE AT ELLORA. 



THE CAVE- TEMPLE OF KABLI. 171 

the various interpretations of its origin, hardly any two can be 
found to agree. There is, however, a general belief that the 
excavation was made before the beginning of the Christian era. 
Bird says he found an inscription there which reads, " Of the 
twentieth year of Datthama Hara, otherwise called Dattaga- 
mini, King of Ceylon, b.c. 163." But there is no trace of an 
inscription now, so far as our eyes could see, and therefore the 
accuracy of Bird's statement cannot be tested. The inscription, 
at all events, may have been put there by some Christian anch- 
orite or priest. For no Hindu would think of giving a Christian 
date to such a magnificent memorial of the early and heroic da} T s 
of his people. Perhaps Burgess is as satisfactory and precise 
in his interpretation as we can hope from any one, when he says, 
" We shall probably not be far wrong in placing the excavation 
of these caves anterior to the Christian era." 

Another of the uncertainties is, that no one has yet been able 
to decide by what class of people the temple was built. But for 
the Oriental reliefs, such as elephants and other figures peculiar 
to the East,it might well have served for an early Christian 
church. But these features preclude the idea that it was ever 
intended for this purpose. All the reliefs of deities do not help 
us towards deciding whether the Brahmans or Buddhists made it. 
One thing is sure, that the idea of excavating the very mountains 
in order to erect beautiful temples is of very early origin, and 
that these cave-temples of India sprang into perfection at the 
very beginning of their history. In no part of the land is one 
to be found which betrays an apprenticeship. 

After leaving the Karli temple and inspecting a few minor exca- 
vations, we made a circuit around the shoulder of the mountain. 
"We could then see that the place where the temple was made 
had been wisely chosen for defence. The mountain itself was a 
protection, had there been no ascent. And as to beautiful scenery, 
no sacred building could have a more charming location. The 
worshipper in the Karli temple, whether in ancient or later times, 
could stand in the vestibule of his fane and look down the valley 
and enjoy a scene of enchanting beauty. The valley lay at his 
feet like a piece of beautiful tapestry, while either mountain-side 
seemed to hang as a rich drapery of darker hue. Should war 
come, as it often did, he knew that little harm could happen to 
his temple. For it was a recess, and, break what they might, the 



172 



INDIRA. 



savage soldiers could not do much real damage to a simple exca- 
vation. Besides, it would be no easy task to draw their batter- 
ing implements up the steep acclivity. A strange army, also, 
would never see the temple or know of its existence ; for in a 
few hours, by timely preparations, rock and earth enough might 
be brought together to conceal its very vestibule from the valley 
below. Indeed, only during a few reaches in our path hither 
could we see the entrance at all, so carefully was the spot chosen 
to prevent notice from the passers-by in the valley. This security 
must have been a prime motive in hewing out cave-temples. The 
land has always been rent with warfare. The whole story of In- 
dia, from the time of Alexander's invasion of the Panjab down 
to the adjustments of English possession, is a flame of violent 
war. Not a vale or mountain is without its epic of bloodshed. 
Religion has come in for its share of interest ; for in many of the 
wars the idolatries of sects and teachers have added to the frenzy. 
Wholesale massacres have played their part, and crimes to which 
there are no names have been planned in places of barbaric splen- 
dor and perpetrated on the innocent millions. 

But the better day is coming for India's coral strand. It has 
come. 




BUDDHIST SUPPORT FROM THE GANE8A 
GROTTO NEAR CUTTACK. 



CHAPTEE XVI. 



PUNA, THE MARHATTA CAPITAL. 

Of all the Indian cities, not one more fully illustrates the tran- 
sition from the old to the new, and the very burial of the old in 
the new, than Puna. Nor is there a place which better proves 
what the Englishman can do with the Hindu's prostrate posses- 
sions — namely, to take up a dead and hopeless capital, and, bring- 
ing in the large outlying territory, clothe the whole with a beauty 
and thrift of which the Hindu had never dreamed. The old 
Puna, with all its death and desolation, has been surrounded by 
the English with a framework of beautiful homes, spacious 
hotels, large and imposing public buildings, fine residences, and 
gardens worthy of any land. 

The old city is not very ancient. It owed its first importance 
to two considerations. It was chosen by the Marhatta chiefs as 
the capital of their empire, and its elevated position gave it a 
perfect atmosphere. The city lies on the plateau of a mountain 
range. It became the capital of the Marhatta kingdom in 1750. 
When that power 
began to decline, the 
importance of Puna 
as an English mili- 
tary station grew 
rapidly. Schools 
for engineering and 
other departments 
of military science 
were established. 

Many retired of- 
ficers have chosen 
Puna for their final 

±xlio,l SLICING LEMONS. 

residence, and the 

presence of their families creates an attractive and cultivated 

society. This is largely increased in the summer months by 




174 INDIRA. 

people from Bombay, many of whom have their country resi- 
dences here. It is the Orange Mountain of Bombay. The city 
numbers about one hundred thousand inhabitants ; but the 
closely packed native city is entirely separated from the Eng- 
lish portion. The British residences are in the midst of large 
grounds, and have all the air of comfort which prevails in the 
homesteads in England itself. The English churches are richly 
decorated. The spacious memorial tablets are eloquent of Eng- 
lish bravery, and are beautiful tributes to the strong ties of affec- 
tion which the long distance from Britain has made more in- 
tense. There are, in the St. Paul's Church, tombs to Morris of 
the Balaklava charge ; to Stuart, and many others who fell in the 
mutiny ; and to Frankland, who fell in Persia. There are others in 
memory of personal friends, who either here or elsewhere in the 
Dekhan have found their grave in India. St. Paul's was dedi- 
cated in 1825, by Bishop Heber. In the old cemetery in East 
Street there are some neglected monuments. Here, in this place 
of rank vegetation and general neglect, lies the dust of the gifted 
Maria Jane Jewsbury. 

The native city is divided into seven quarters, which are named 
after the days of the week. An ancient palace, now a ruin, is in 
the Saturday quarter. It is enclosed by a wall one hundred and 
eighty yards square. Out in the suburbs, and on an eminence, I 
visited the ancient Fort, where many a tragedy has been enacted. 
The doors are covered with iron spikes, to make the entrance as 
nearly impossible as lay in the power of the rulers. From the ter- 
race here, in 1795, the young chief, Madhu Rao, because he had 
been insulted by his prime-minister, cast himself down, and died 
of his injuries two days afterwards. However, the most of the 
violence in this fort has been involuntary. The annals of the place 
are written, every page, in blood. Near the Fort is the street where 
Marhatta offenders were put to death by being trampled upon by 
elephants. This was a common mode of getting rid of trouble- 
some subjects. Its only objection was its publicity. The native 
princes generally chose more retired methods. But, in any case, 
they did not stand long on the order of their deadly doing. 

The ride out to Parvati, a lofty hill crowned with a group of 
temples, is the most interesting excursion in the neighborhood of 
Puna. The road leads past the Hira Bagh, or Diamond Garden, 
where one sees some tombs to other Englishmen, who here found 




PUNA, THE MABHATTA CAPITAL. 177 

their last resting-place. Among the most noticeable is that to 
Cornwallis Harris. The main temple at Parvati was built by 
the peshwa, Balaji Baji Rao, who ruled from 1740 to 1761. He 
died of chagrin, after the defeat of his army at Panipat. The 
traveller, to reach the 
temple, must pass be- 
neath a filthy bridge, 
after which he ascends 
a long flight of broad ( 
stone steps. When the 
Prince of Wales visited 
Parvati he rode up these 
steps on an elephant, 
and it is the favorite 

way of reaching the height. I was disinclined to adopt it, how- 
ever, from a wish to put off my elephant ride in India as long 
as possible. There is a silver image of Siva in the temple. 
Those of Parvati and Ganesh are said to be of gold. There 
are smaller temples surrounding the larger one, the whole form- 
ing a most pleasing architectural group. From the Moorish 
window, on one side of the surrounding wall, Baji Rao watched 
his army as it struggled for victory, and saw at last his kingdom 
go down with the close of the fatal day. 

A flight of steps leads to the top of the wall. Here the view 
is of surpassing beauty. The distant outlying mountains form a 
charming landscape. Twelve miles off is the memorable Sin- 
garh, which was captured by Tanaji Malusrai in 1670. In other 
directions are Chakan, Saswad, Jijuvi — each the scene of noted 
military encounters. The valleys, traversed by sjtreams, wind 
along between the mountains. Towering palms stretch out their 
fronds on hillside and in the vale, while the mango and other 
trees furnish a picture of luxuriance which I feasted upon with 
rare delight. At our feet lay the city of Puna, its larger build- 
ings and entire outline being clearly in view. The whole is a 
study. Here reigned and died the last of the Marhatta rulers in 
India. His palaces are ruins, and are now visited only by the 
curious tourist. The Englishman is here, building wisely and 
ruling justly, and fairly blotting out the old memories of cruelty 
and blood by all those improvements and institutions which find 
their real genesis in his higher Christian civilization. 
12 



CHAPTEE XVII. 



THE NIZAM'S H AID ARAB AD.— A NATIVE CITY. 

There are two Haidarabacls in India. One is in the north, 
near the Indus, and is the capital of Sind. The other is in the 
south, and is the largest city in the great territory known as the 
Dekhan. It is the capital of the Nizam's dominions. The south- 
ern Haidarabad is the more famous of the two, and has played 
an important part in the history of India 
for two centuries. Just here, at the bat- 
tered gates of this southern Haidarabad, 
begins the whole history of European em- 
pire in India. The great Nizam-ul-Mulk 
died. A war of succession broke out. The 
French interfered. The flames of war 
spread everywhere. The English, who 
never see fighting without a wish to par- 
ticipate, took part here.* The end was 
what we see to-day — the English queen 
the Empress of India. 

The Nizam is prince of the country. The 
population subject to him amounts to about 
ten millions. He has a personal income 
of fifteen million dollars. 

The prime-minister in office at the time 
of my visit was Sir Salar Jang, the son 
of that extraordinary Sir Salar Jang who 
was premier at the time of the mutiny, and proved himself to 
be a firm friend of England. The son gives promise of follow- 
ing closely in his father's footsteps. The Eev. Dr. A. W. Eudi- 
sill thus describes his personal appearance : " He is very tall,' 
with grace in his every step. He has fine, silky, jet-black hair, 




OFFICER OF THE NIZAM S 
GUARDS, HAIDARABAD. 



*Seeley, "Expansion of England," p. 203. 



THE NIZAM'S HAIDABABAD.—A NATIVE CITY. 



179 



delicate skin, sharp features, a pear-shaped head, with the large 
end of the pear up." 

Long before reaching Haidarabacl I noticed that the country 
was dotted in every direction by huge masses of dark rocks. 
Some were mere boulders, while others were sharp and conical, 
closely resembling the parti-colored sandstone cones along the 
Yellowstone Falls. Some of those in the vicinity of Haidarabad 
rise abruptly amid the cultivated land, their sharp needles point- 




THE RESIDENCY AT HAIDARABAD. 



ing jaggedly into the air, as though no attempt in all the centu- 
ries had ever been made to get rid of them. The Hindus have 
& way of accounting for every natural irregularity, and they ex- 
plain this rocky phenomenon by the theory that the Creator, 
after completing all the rest of the world, had a great many 
shapeless fragments left over, for which there was no use, and 
so he tossed them all down in the country around Haidarabad. 



180 INDIRA. 

Several times during my week in this place I strolled out to a 
hill, a confused pile of these bare rocks, quite beyond the sub- 
urban residences. This is " Tipu's Lookout." It rises fifty 
feet above the plain. A flight of steps is cut into one side of 
the chief granite mass ; but I generally succeeded in missing 
them, and so had to pick my way by a very uncertain path. 
From the summit of Tipu's Lookout one enjoys a view of the 
country for many miles around. The more prominent object is 
the gloomy old Golconda fort in the west, with the massive 
tombs of the Kutub Shahi kings in the foreground. 

The garden of the Nizam is public. It was within five min- 
utes' walk of my place of entertainment, the house of the Eev. 
Mr. Carter. I never tired of wandering through its labyrinths, 
enjoying its delightful fragrance, and examining the endless va- 
riety of the plants. Every art which these cultivators of flowers 
in India have arrived at by the experience of centuries is here 
employed, by rich designs in colors, by succession of flowering 
shrubs, and by a happy combination of large shrubs and the 
smaller plants. All the more delicate plants are in pots, and need 
to be watered every day. There are six millions of potted plants 
alone, to say nothing of the multitude of larger ones. Water- 
ing is the great business of the laborers. To do this properly a 
large force must be constantly at work. The garden has walks 
of all kinds — straight and in curves. Little surprises came to me 
every time I sauntered here, though I thought I had seen the 
garden well at my first visit. There are miniature lakes, jaunty 
belvederes, laughing nooks, now a bit of jungle and now a broad 
and beautiful open space, where the distant view is enchanting. 

The city of Haidarabad, with its outlying suburbs, has a popu- 
lation of three hundred and fifty-five thousand. Of all places 
in India it is the most turbulent and unsafe. This curious con- 
dition of things has come about because of the hostility between 
the two ruling classes of the population. These are the Hindus 
and the Mohammedans. But many other faiths and nations are 
represented in this strange city. In the brilliant days of the 
Mogul empire in the north, when the emperors ruled all India 
from Lahor, Delhi, and Agra, they fearlessly marched far to 
the south and conquered the country. They established sub- 
ordinate princes in Golconda as a capital, which was later aban- 
doned as a residence. Haidarabad was then laid out and built to 



THE NIZAM'S HAIDABABAD.—A NATIVE CITY. 



181 



take its place. The ruling prince was the Nizam. He, like his 
fathers, was a Mohammedan. But his subjects were for the 
most part Hindus. The latter, naturally enough, have always 
been secretly hostile to the Mohammedan conqueror and his de- 
scendants, and every now and then there is a violent outbreak 
of the old hatred. 

Haidarabad is still walled, and it is not always safe for a for- 
eigner to walk through the streets without an escort. I was re- 




STREET VIEW AND CHAR MINAR, HAIDARABAD. 



peatedly cautioned against entering the gates and strolling even 
into the nearest bazaar. Only the week before my short sojourn 
an outbreak had occurred, when nine persons were killed in the 
general uproar. This particular conflict came about in a pecul- 
iar way. The Nizam, years ago, called to his aid an Arab 
prince, the Sultan of Aden, with his army of several thousand 
troops. He promised a certain payment, which was high. The 



182 



INDIKA. 



prince came hither, at the head of his troops, and settled in ITai- 
darabad. But the pay was not forthcoming. The Nizam had 
other uses for his fifteen million dollars' income. The debt in- 
creased, and, though the prince was very wealthy, he wanted his 
money. His troops shared with him the sense of injustice, and 
that made them overbearing, and ready at any time to commit 
deeds of violence. It was a conflict between imported Arab 
troops and the native soldiers and population of the Nizam. 
The outbreaks generally lead to tedious trials in court, and, in 
the case of the trouble which occurred the week before my visit, 
the Arab prince was found guilty, fined heavily, and expelled 
the country for a number of years. So far as I could learn, 
there was no justice in the verdict. The whole affair ap- 
peared to me to be only an Indian method of getting clear of 
a troublesome neighbor and an uncomfortable debt. As this 
piece of summary procedure took place in the interval between 
the death of the senior Sir Salar Jang and the accession of his 
son to the premiership, we may infer that it is a fair specimen 
of native Indian justice. 




THE NIZAM S STATE COACH, HAIDARABAD. 



CHAPTEK XVIII. 

GOLCONDA.— AN ELEPHANT RIDE. 

During my week in Haidarabad I had two opportunities for 
an elephant ride. The first was a mere stroll in a suburb, and 
around the walls of the Nizam's garden. The howdah, or sad- 
dle, was comfortable, and my elephant was as calm and obedient 
as a used-up Syrian horse. I found myself on a level with the 
tops of many of the native houses. But this was a mere prom- 
enade compared with the more stately ride on one of the court 
elephants. Three were furnished for our little company. Our 
plan was to ride through Haidarabad, inspect its chief buildings, 
and then go out into the country and make a visit to Goleonda. 

To Mr. Henry Croley I was indebted for such special courte- 
sies as made this second ride the most remarkable excursion dur- 
ing my stay in India. He is the author of the " Geography of 
the Eastern Peninsula," and during his residence in Burma was 
the tutor of the Delhi princes, the last scions of the great Mogul 
dynasty. Mr. Croley is now inspector of schools in the Nizam's 
dominions, and has passed successfully through all the stages of 
violent jealousy and opposition, and is firmly established, by his 
successful management of the department of education, in the 
favor of both the Nizam and his cabinet. He is only second in 
authority in educational work in the Nizam's dominions, the di- 
rector of public instruction, Gyed Ali, being first. 

Mr. Croley made application to the court for elephants, and a 
permit to examine the city and visit the ancient fort of Goleonda. 
For two days there was no answer to the request ; but a satisfac- 
tory one finally arrived, couched in all the epithets of Oriental 
courtesy which both the Hindustani and Arabic languages convey : 

" Royal Command. 
" An order has been issued for the 26th November that Bishop Hurst and his 
party will visit the tombs of Goleonda, and that he may see the place. 

" For this reason, all government servants and peasants (or civilians) shall 



184 INDIRA. 

see and provide that no trouble or molestation shall occur to the gentleman 
and his party. 

" If the gentleman written above, and the party referred to, require help or 
assistance in any way, I hereby issue an order that the same be furnished. 
" It is done. 24th November. 
" The writing is finished. 

" Written, 5th Shair Safar. 
" 1302 Hijra. 

" Concluded in the blessed city of Haidarabad." 

In addition to this general order there was another, communi- 
cated by the prime-minister to Mr. Cunningham, the First Assist- 
ant English Resident. It provided for the means of conveyance, 
and read as follows : 

"Haidarabad, Dekhan, 2ith November, 1884. 
"My dear Mr. Cunningham, — I have signed and now return the pass for 
Bishop Hurst to visit Golconda. 

" Two elephants have also been ordered to be at the city gate at 7 o'clock 
on "Wednesday morning. 

"I will let the Nawab Bashir ud Daula know of the bishop's desire to visit 
the Jahan Nuina, and unless you hear to the contrary you may count on neces- 
sary orders having been given. 

" Believe me, etc., Salar Jang. 

'■' (True copy.) 

" Moses Hughes, Extra Assistant Resident." 

Two elephants were furnished, well caparisoned, and provided 
with a strong guard. I have never seen a larger elephant than 
the one to whose lofty back I was assigned. If I may judge 
from its enormous size, it might well have been the great one 
which had belonged to the senior Sir Salar Jang. The name of 
that famous beast was Khudadad (that is, Deodatus, God-given), 
reputed to be the largest elephant in all India. Put on my ele- 
phant's back a spacious and elevated howdah, and then add to 
that the distance to the top of my cork helmet, and one has con- 
verted a man into a conspicuous feature of the Indian landscape. 
My howdah was rich in tinsel, but it leaned obstinately to one 
side. I was told that this augured no ill, as all the straps were 
tight. But there was a sense of discomfort with every step of 
the great beast. A number of gentlemen rode on the same ele- 
phant with me, and as we had no clatter of wheels to disturb us, 
our social intercourse was as undisturbed as if we had been sit- 
ting on a group of chairs in the Nizam's palace. If people ac- 



GOLCONDA.—AN ELEPHANT BIDE. 185 

costed us with unsavory epithets, they never went so far as to 
interfere with our progress. Perhaps the guard, with the courtly 
trappings of our elephants, produced a cautious respect 

Haidarabad has thirteen gates. We pass through one and 
over a bridge which spans the Musi Eiver, and are now, in due 



i 



liiiiifeii 




SIR SALAR JANG, THE ELDER. 



procession, making a straight course through the main street of 
the city. All the lesser animals, with the throng of pedestrians, 
get out of our way. Our elephants seem to have all rights, and 



186 INDIRA. 

care for nothing. They pass steadily along, and in due time I 
get accustomed to the sag of my howdah. 

The general architecture is not inspiring. With the exception 
of a few public buildings, such as the mosques and the palaces 
of the nobles, there is but little architectural merit. Nearly all 
the edifices were erected in troublous days. Hence the substan- 
tial character of all the massive teak- wood gates and wickets, 
over which are quarters for a guard or small garrison. Every 
now and then we pass a spacious bazar. The best of these are 
the Cloth Bazar, a handsome row of buildings facing an orna- 
mental garden containing fountains and great tanks, and the 
Arms Bazar, where one can see old and new armor of every 
kind, and form some conception of the bloody work these people 
have been doing for two centuries. The people whom we pass 
in the streets present the most warlike appearance of any civil- 
ians whom I ever saw. All the inhabitants of Haidarabad carry 
a weapon of some kind, while the military classes go armed up 
to their very eyes. It is the custom of the upper classes to pay 
a visit to each other or to the Nizam with an unaccoutred dag- 
ger stuck in the girdle, or a sword suspended from the gold-lace 
belt which the majority wear. Servants and attendants copy 
the formidable adornments of their masters. 

The mixed nature of the population is very striking. All the 
ruder nations and tribes which have drifted into India, or have 
been produced on the soil, are represented. Here is a semi-mili- 
tary Arab, with a perfect arsenal of weapons in his kamarband, 
or waistband. An Arab chief in his palki, or palankeen, is es- 
corted by a surging and tumultuous crowd of his retainers, firing 
off muskets and shouting out the wonderful titles of their august 
master as they pass along. Next comes the Seedee, with his 
broad, black negro face, who is more fearful to behold than an 
Arab villain. The Rohilla, with slow and dignified step, may 
next be seen ; his huge bell-mouthed blunderbuss, without which 
in Haidarabad he is never seen, is as distinguishable as himself. 
The Pathan, the Afghan, the Persian, the Bokhariat, the Geor- 
gian, the Parsi, the Dekhanese, the Sikh, and the Turk, with 
many others, may be seen passing along, and making way for 
our magisterial elephants. We now reach the Char Minar (Four 
Minarets). It is the heart of Haidarabad. Four streets diverge 
from it. Each of the four minarets is one hundred and eighty 



«-- 




AN ELEPHANT RIDE. 



GOLCONDA.—AN ELEPHANT RIDE. 189 

feet -high. Above the arches are a couple of rooms, used as a 
madrasa and masjid (school and church). No one is allowed to 
ascend either of the minarets, for they look down on the Nizam's 
palace. The Char Minar was erected a.d. 1591, by Mohammed 
Kuli Kutub Shah. He built it in honor of God's favorable an- 
swer to the prayers of some holy men in a day of a fierce pesti- 
lential scourge. In 1756 Bussy and his troops occupied it and 
the gardens around. It is the "scandal point" of the idle loiter- 
ers of Haidarabad. Writers of petitions and letters are squatted 
around on the steps, plying their trade, just as one used to see in 
great abundance in the Neapolitan market-places. Near by is 
the Mecca Masjid. This mosque is a quadrangle of three hun- 
dred and sixty feet square. Its roof is supported by fifteen 
arches. During the festivals from eight to ten thousand wor- 
shippers meet under the two huge domes. Abdula Kutub Shah 
began it, and Aurangzeb, the great Mogul emperor, finished it. 
Within the mosque many of the princes lie buried. 

We made only two or three halts while passing through the 
city, but, for prudential reasons, did not dismount. Having 
emerged from the gate of the city at the farther end of the main 
thoroughfare, we turned to the right, and took the road skirting 
a massive wall. We had a special permit to visit the Jahan 
Numa, one of the principal palaces of Haidarabad. As we were 
now away from the warlike throng of Haidarabadese, we dis- 
mounted, and began a ramble through hall and gardens. The 
Jahan Numa belongs to the family of one of the chief noble- 
men, Bushir-ud-Dowlah. Having gone through some build- 
ings connected with the palace, but shielding it largely from 
public view, we came into a large court, which seemed to have 
been used for soldiers, both horse and foot, and the retainers of 
the prince. At the farther end of the court we came to a stair- 
case, and entered the main rooms of the vast palace. Here were 
spacious halls, covered with carpets and rugs of many ancient 
and curious designs. The furniture was richly carved. Some of 
it was of dark old Indian woods, but a portion was of European 
and later origin. I was struck by the odd contrivances to amuse 
the members of the princely household living here. Here were 
clocks of fantastic workmanship, and at every convenient corner 
there were automata of the quaintest possible construction. All 
were in motion, and so contrived as to amuse by doing unex- 



190 



INDIKA. 



pected things. For example, I saw the figure of a grenadier, 
whose sole business it was to swallow miniature fish. There 
were instruments for performing musical freaks. Stuffed birds 




MIR ALAM LAKE. 



could be seen everywhere, grouped into all possible combinations, 
so as to make the scene as nearly lifelike as possible. I visited 



GOLCONDA.—AN ELEPHANT RIDE. 191 

many other palaces in India afterwards, and learned that it was 
an ancient usage of the kings and noblemen of Hindustan to em- 
ploy the most accomplished artists in curious mechanism, whose 
sole business it was to contrive and construct odd and unheard-of 
devices of this kind to please the ladies of the Indian courts. In 
the old days their time hung heavily. There were many women 
to be pleased, and they had their jealousies, and could be best 
appeased by having their fancy charmed by the sight and sound 
of these curious devices. 

Having finished the halls of the palace, we ascended a stair- 
case, and came out upon a beautiful and fragrant garden. My 
first thought was that the rooms which we had just left were 
immediately below us, and that the garden we were now in was 
on the roof of the palace. In other words, I supposed myself to 
be in a hanging garden. But on examination I saw that the 
garden was really only on a level with the roof, but was sup- 
ported by a terrace so raised as to give the visitor the impression 
that he was walking over the palace roof. This too was evidently 
only a device to bewilder the guest into still greater admiration 
at his environment. This garden contained flowers of rare beauty 
and fragrance, and was laid off in exquisite designs. Having left 
it, we wandered through the grounds in the rear. Here we came 
into a labyrinth of pleasing and curious construction. It served 
its purpose, as I soon learned by getting lost in it. Always ex- 
pect the Indian to do his work differently from the rest of the 
world. This labyrinth was not of the same order as the one in 
the Palmengarten in Frankfort-on-Main, or the less pleasing one 
in the outlying grounds of Hampton Court, but it served its pur- 
pose far better. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

THE FORT AND TOMBS OF GOLCONDA. 

We now remounted our elephants and proceeded on our way 
around the wall of Haidarabad. Our excursion was only to end 
with the four-mile ride out to the celebrated fort and tombs of 
Golconda. But we had not proceeded long on our road around 
the wall before we found carriages in waiting. Our friends whom 
we had left behind had imagined that we would be thoroughly 
tired of the elephants, and would be glad to exchange them for 
comfortable carriages. In this they were quite correct. An 
elephant ride to Golconda in the torrid sun would not only have 
occupied the entire day, but would have been, to me at least, a 
dangerous experience. Happy is he who lives in a country where 
it is not the highest discourtesy to decline the offer of the largest 
elephant belonging to the court of the prince. Our mammoths 
doubled up their spongy feet and dropped down with us. "We 
were soon taking a little stroll on terra firm a, and then entered 
the welcome carriages. 

Golconda has an old, old history. Haidarabad, with all its 
years, great population, and bloody history, is young in compari- 
son with the dead city whose acropolis rises from the plain three 
miles in the distance on our left. The blocks of black granite 
which lie scattered over the country here lose their individuality, 
and form an immense cone, on the apex of which stands the 
grim fort of old and rich Golconda. The fort is still surrounded 
by its crenellated stone wall, three miles in circumference. It 
has eighty-seven high bastions at the angles, on which are still 
the ancient Shahi guns, some of them with their breeches blown 
out from service in half -forgotten wars. The bastions are built 
of solid blocks of granite, either cemented together or. bound 
with iron clamps. Many of these blocks are of colossal size and 
weight. The average thickness of the bastions is from fifty to 
sixty feet. 



THE FORT AND TOMBS OF GOLCONDA. 195 

On the sides of this towering acropolis, and enclosed by the 
great wall, Golconda was built, the streets running at all possi- 
ble angles, and crossing each other at unexpected places, the 
whole forming as complete a zigzag as one can find in the older 
parts of Genoa. I suspect, however, that all the buildings which 
this ancient wall enclosed were connected either with the army 
or the court, and that the general population of Golconda lived 
in the plain surrounding the rocky heights. It was the Indian 
way to call the place a fort where the palace and all its depend- 
encies were situated. The army was always the needful support 
of royalty, and must be near at hand. Hence the homes for offi- 
cers and the quarters for soldiers had to be within reach. The 
entire group of buildings, with the many additional structures for 
servants and all the belongings of palace and army, was called 
the Fort. It was the combined home of the king and his army, 
and large space was needed for such a population. It was, in- 
deed, the kingdom in miniature. 

The Golconda fort was the most remarkable elevation in all 
the region of Haidarabad. Its high wall concealed all parts near 
the base of the hill; but other buildings and towers and palace 
ruins rose above these, until the open and airy tower, with grace- 
ful balconies and broad parterres, crowned the very summit and 
commanded a broad and beautiful view. I had no hope of be- 
ing able to visit this mysterious place at first ; for in East wick's 
" Guide to the Madras Presidency " I had read these discourag- 
ing words : " No person is ever permitted to visit the interior of 
the fort unless the Nizam himself should go there, and, as that 
seldom or never happens, the persons who can describe the de- 
tails of the fortification are few or none." But Mr. Croley was 
fully equal to the emergency. With his other permits he had 
secured the all-important one to go within the very fort itself, 
and see every part of it, and stay as long as we might choose. 
On reaching the gates the chief of the guard, all of whom were 
accoutred with old-time Indian weapons, advanced to meet us. 
Mr. Croley drew forth our high-sounding permit. 

The warder made low obeisance, and flung wide open the 
creaking and battered gates, and bade us enter. The very sight 
of those old portals made one shiver. They were of teak- wood, 
and nearly covered with iron knobs, and bristling with rude and 
heavy spikes, enough (and much to spare) for resisting the attack 



196 INDIKA. 

of any number of assailing elephants. "We now left the carriages, 
and began a steep climb to the top of the hill. The scene was 
one of decay and filth. The very streets up and down which 
great royal processions had moved, and queens and princesses 
decked in jewels had been borne in glittering palanquins by 
human hands, were now neglected, and reeking with wretched 
odors. On the way up we passed many battlements. It was 
fort within fort. We saw piles of fragments of palace walls ; 
decayed mansions, where still beautiful sections of the delicate 
jalousies told the story of former splendor and social elegance ; 
and heavy guns, which had grown rusty in their long silence and 
disuse. On our right we saw an immense piece of masonry — a 
chambered wall with granite substructures — the whole covering 
a catacomb of fabulous dimensions. Here lay the buried treasure 
of Golconda in the old times, when the kings revelled in untold 
glory, and their very names were symbols of heroism and 
wealth throughout India. What this treasure consisted of is not 
well known, but most probably it was in jewels and gold. These 
were buried somewhere in these far-down vaults, and only the 
Nizam, with possibly his premier, knew their exact whereabouts. 
He had a diagram of the catacomb, and knew where to go with 
his diggers, who were probably blindfolded when in sight of the 
treasure. When treasure was taken out, the place was walled 
up again, that all trace of the locality might disappear. It is be- 
lieved, according to the best information I could derive, that vast 
Wealth is still stored here, which is at the service of the Nizam 
when his revenue from regular sources gets scanty. I noticed 
that there had been recent openings in the solid masonry, but 
could not tell whether they had been caused by making repairs 
or for outlets for the concealed treasure, and again walled up. 

The "mines of Golconda" are a pure myth. The diamonds 
and other precious stones discovered near Cuddapah were brought 
here for sale, and were readily purchased by the rulers and their 
wealthy court. They were cut and polished here, and were re- 
garded as equally good with gold as permanent treasure of the 
realm. The burial of them for future emergency gave the pop- 
ular impression of a mine. 

The vegetation of this wonderful climate was the only cheer- 
ing object which we passed in our climb to the top of the acrop- 
olis. Graceful palms grew in the midst of spaces where once 



THE FORT AND TOMBS OF GOLCONDA. 



197 



had been brilliant palace halls. Miniature lakes, which must 
have been as pearls, were now only filthy excavations, over- 
grown with weeds and become the haunt of hideous reptiles. All 
the vines known to the tropics grew in luxuriance, and wound 
themselves about parapet and balcony, and over the rude huts 
where the soldiers sleep. 

By and by we reached the topmost point, and came out upon 
a broad esplanade, and looked off into the vast distance. This 




SWIMMING-DRILL OF ELEPHANTS. 



was a part of the king's palace — his promenade and outlook. 
The picture was one of indescribable beauty. The December 
sky was cloudless and the air perfect. The sense of lassitude 
had passed away. We had fairly forgotten the fatigue of the 
elephant ride and the climb up the steep way to our final look- 
out. On one side was the entire city of Haidarabad, with its 
palaces and forts, and without the walls the green zone of Eng- 
lish homes and churches and the smiling and fragrant gardens 



198 INDIRA. 

of the Nizam. Nine miles on the east side lay Sikandarabad. 
Towns and villages, great rectangular tanks, large enough for 
lakes, conical hills of black rock, lofty palms, graceful minarets, 
shooting up towards the sky, and, above all, the great domed 
tombs, still glittering with rich porcelain adornments, where 
rests the dust of kings and noblemen in the plain at our feet, 
formed a panorama entirely different from anything I had seen, 
or could hope to see, in India. 

This was the rich Golconda of nearly four centuries ago. For 
an unknown time a village had lingered in filth and obscurity 
around the base of the rocky cone. In 1512 the Sultan Kuli 
Kutab Shah declared his independence of the prince Mahmud 
Shah Bahmani, who ruled over the entire country. Mahmud's 
soldiers were strong, but Kuli's were still stronger and more suc- 
cessful. The latter built in this plain and on the hill his capital, 
and hoped to found here an imperishable throne. But pestilence, 
probably caused by lack of pure water, frequently invaded the 
place. It became a very den of disease. The treasures of his 
home sickened and died without apparent cause. In 1589 a suc- 
cessor resolved to remove the capital, and hence he began to 
build Haidarabad, which has served that purpose ever since. 
During the entire time since then, however, Golconda has been 
held as a fbrt, and has been carefully kept up as a military 
stronghold and treasure city. 

The history of Golconda, even when it ceased to be the capi- 
tal, is a piece-work of singular romance. It is not unlikely that 
the kings still came out from Haidarabad, and spent many a quiet 
hour on this lofty place, and enjoyed the bracing air. But the 
doom of the past made all its associations gloomy. Haidarabad, 
in time, took precedence over Golconda. The fame of the new 
residence extended into all the Oriental countries. The Shah of 
Persia once sent hither his ambassador with a crown studded 
with rubies, and other valuable gifts, who in return took back 
with him gold cloth and other Indian treasures. The Nizam of 
Haidarabad made war on his neighbors, absorbed their territory, 
and even invaded Bengal. This was too strong a power in the 
south to allow the great Mogul rulers of the north to feel secure. 
The Emperor Aurangzeb marched hither at the head of his great 
army, and with his immense engines of war attacked the fort, 
captured it, and made the royal family prisoners. This was the 



THE FORT AND TOMBS OF GOLOONDA. 



199 



beginning of a new order. The present Nizam, as a successor to 
the old Mogul line, rules over this one fragment of the now 
dead empire of the Mogul rulers of the north — the greatest of 
Indian dynasties since the days of Alexander. 

Our luncheon was spread out in the balcony of the Fort, and 
we could enjoy the view during our whole stay. On returning 
to the gate we found our carriages waiting, and then proceeded 
to visit the celebrated tombs of the kings. 

An Indian tomb is unlike any memorial structure in the 



W.™-- ; * , lIBilll 




ELEPHANTS ON THE MARCH. 



Occident. "When a wealthy or royal Hindu or Mohammedan 
wished to build a tomb in memory of his beloved dead, he took 
care to make it large — a great building of solid stone or well- 
burned brick, covered with durable cement. Or, as in many cases, 
the whole might be of solid marble, with inlaid colored stones. 
The dead were buried in a vault below, but on the floor directly 
above it was the ornamental tomb, which in finish varied accord- 
ing to the taste and skill of the architect and the amount of gold 
put into his hands. 



200 INDIRA. 

Take one of these Golconda tombs as a type. That of the 
sixth king, Sultan Abdulla Kutab Shah, may be regarded as a 
fair specimen. There is a broad base,, nearly a hundred feet 
square. Above this on every side are arches, beneath which one 
passes into the broad and unbroken hall where the one or several 
tombs are. Here is a tomb of black stone, consisting of five de- 
creasing plinths, which are engraved with favorite extracts from 
the Quran, and an epitaph recalling the astounding virtues of 
the king. Directly above rises a dome of fifty feet in height. 
There are stairways leading through the walls to the balconies 
above, where one can look down upon the square hall below, or, 
as in some cases, out upon the surrounding country. Much of 
the exterior of some of these tombs is covered with porcelain 
tiling. The colors, though fused into the cement by an art now 
lost to India and the world, are as bright as though, laid on only 
yesterday. They dazzle the eye in the glowing sun. They may be 
simply inscriptions from the Quran or graceful arabesques from 
old Persian designs. Some of this exquisite tiling has fallen, but 
enough still remains to tell how even a rare combination of bright 
colors was made to do its good part towards beautifying and 
making cheerful the exterior of these memorial places of the 
dead. 

The largest and most magnificent tomb of all is to the fourth 
king, Mohammed Kuli. The eight plinths abound in incised 
quotations from the Quran. From the base of, the building to 
the top of the ornament which rises above the dome there is a 
distance of one hundred and eighty feet. There are galleries 
and corridors in both the lower and upper stories. The colored 
tiles filling the distance between the stone-work on the exterior 
walls are exceedingly rich. From places where the tiles had faMen 
I could see the way in which the artists had taken pains to secure 
them in their places. Spikes with hooks on the ends had been 
driven into the walls. The tiles, being perfectly ready, were laid 
in a bed of fine mortar, and the blocks, in this plastic condition, 
were placed upon these spikes, and pushed back into the general 
surface, and left to harden. The hooked ends of the spikes, be- 
ing surrounded with the hardened mortar, held the tiles in place. 
That the workmen did their work well, the still remaining bright 
tiles on many of these tombs, after the waste and wear of three 
centuries, furnish ample proof. 



THE FORT AND TOMBS OF GOLGONDA. 201 

There are many of these tombs at Golconda. They vary in 
size, and are in all degrees of preservation. Some are ruins, but 
the most are in good condition, and great pains are taken to keep 
the corridors and halls and even the approaches well swept. The 
white domes rise in all directions, and form such a picture of 
splendor in memory of the dead as is found nowhere else even 
in India. It was an old Indian taste that nature should do its 
part towards the adornment of the God's-acre. The friends 
of the departed took care that gardens should wind about the 
tombs, where, amid the beauty and fragrance of rich vegeta- 
tion, they could sit at will and linger by the day in sight of the 
resting-place of their loved ones. So to this day there are rich 
gardens surrounding these vast tombs. They bloom on — the 
only bright picture in this dark landscape of decay and death. 

It is one of the strange vicissitudes to which a royal tomb can 
come that an English family can go and occupy one, by special 
permission, during the summer months. That they are the cool- 
est structures in all this region no one can deny. The tomb 
proper occupies but small space, while the great hall in which it 
stands is clean, has small rooms at its sides, and is well adapted 
for a comfortable home for a family. Mr. Schafter, one of the 
gentlemen in our little company who visited the fort and the 
tombs, informed me that he and his family had occupied one of 
these better tombs during the whole of the preceding summer, 
and had found it a most delightful lodging-place. The idea that 
they were living in the burial-place of the dead had no disturb- 
ing effect whatever on his household. His family seemed never 
to think of it. But I soon found that in India one soon gets ac- 
customed to things which at home the very mention of would 
seem preposterous. I found in Lucknow that one of the prin- 
cipal houses permanently occupied by one of our lady mission- 
aries was a tomb. The sarcophagus occupied the centre of a 
room, and figured only as a piece of superfluous furniture in 
Miss Blackmar's really beautiful home. 

Before leaving Haidarabad I had intimated to Mr. Schafter 
that I would like to purchase some specimens of ancient armor. 
He gave notice to some retail dealers in the Arms Bazar that 
a customer might be found, should they choose to bring some 
specimens of their wares to his bungalow. The hint was quite 
sufficient. Early in the morning, almost before I had finished 




202 



INDIKA. 



my coffee, several of these dealers came within Mr. Schafter's 
compound. They were laden from head to foot with all manner 
of early Indian or Arabic weapons. What they could not carry 
on their shoulders they had packed in bags and bundles, and, 
when they had unloaded themselves, they not only covered a 
good part of the veranda, but also the parlor floor, with their 
murderous wares. They had brought enough of their ancient 
treasures to make a respectable museum. The typical American 
searcher for bric-a-brac would have gone wild at such a scene. 
Here were a woven shirt of iron, great steel bows, short swords 
for thrusting, daggers with curved blades and double edges, raw- 
hide shields, and many other fine specimens of armor now no 
longer made. The sword-hilts were profusely inlaid with gold 
and silver thread, while the blades bore figures of rich arabesques, 
either burned in or cut with great skill. All were of a make for 
dealing sure and savage blows. The weapons were irresistible. 
They came, I saw, and they conquered. Some of the more curi- 
ous in many departments I bought. After making my selection 
I had to beg Mr. Schafter to tell the men to pack up and be off. 
I began to fear for the reserves in my letter of credit. I sent 
my collection by private conveyance to Bombay to await my 
sailing day, two months later. It is now safely stored in the 
Indian corner of my library in Washington. 




NECKLACE, ENAMEL ON SILVER, SEMI- BARBARIC 
HILL WORK, FROM KANGRA, PANJAB. 



CHAPTEK XX. 

WAYS OF INDIAN TRAVEL. 

There is no country where there is such great diversity in the 
methods of travel as in India. The inventive faculty seems to have 
gone wild, in all times, in devices to make transportation both pos- 
sible and easy. In the plains one finds one class of conveyances, 
and in the hill country another kind. Yet these are strangely 




TRACK -LAYING NEAR BHOPAL. 



mixed. In the interior the surprises are numerous, and, away 
from the railroads, it is difficult to anticipate what sort of convey- 
ance will be brought before your door for a long journey. But 
the railway is the certain method of land travel for the future. 
The native Hindu, when he takes his seat in a third-class carriage, 



204 INDIRA. 

seems to be supremely happy. He appears as though just awak- 
ened from a sleep of ages. 

There are three classes of Indian railway-carriages — first, sec- 
ond, and third. The doors are at the sides, the carriage being 
divided into cross sections, as in European countries. Each sec- 
tion of the third class holds about fourteen people, the seven on 
one seat facing the seven on the other. The second-class sec- 
tions are about ten feet long, divided by three seats parallel with 
the track. Each seat can hold four people, but I have seen no 
case where a whole second-class compartment has been able to 
accommodate more than four or five persons for a night ride. 
The first-class compartment is about the size of the second-class, 
but has only two seats, which run along the two sides of the car. 
These seats are broad, and have leather upholstering. Above 
each there is a folded frame, which lets down at night and be- 
comes a bed, just over the regular seat, like the upper berth of a 
Pullman or Wagner section. Some of the first-class cars have a 
seat running across the end of the compartment. I noticed that 
this was often avoided by travellers. But I always had the best 
sleeping on it, and was therefore glad to get it. 

The first and second class carriages are furnished with a toilet- 
room, and in some cases with a bath-room. But there are no 
towels or brushes, or even soap. Neither is there any carpet, or 
even a shred of oil-cloth, on the floor. The main compartments,, 
however, of both the first and second class, have oil-cloth cover- 
ing for the floor. But there is no attempt made to keep it clean. 

At one end of some of the third-class carriages there is a small • 
compartment, with seats for about eight persons, which is " for 
Europeans only." That means it is not for the barefooted and 
half-naked natives. It has hard seats, but otherwise is not un- 
comfortable. If you and your travelling companion can secure 
that between you, and will spread out your wraps on the seats, 
you can have a good night's rest. As to the springs of the car- 
riages, they are all alike uncomfortable. There is a jar and sud- 
den jerking, which I found on all the lines. Hence it is much 
more difficult to preserve your axis of vision, in both reading and 
writing, than in the easy German carriages, and our still more 
easy American. But I managed to catch up a good deal of lost 
time on even these trains, by resting my eyes more frequently, 
and so avoiding a strain. 



WA YS OF INDIAN TRA VEL. 



205 



On some roads there are separate carriages for ladies and 
gentlemen. When a man and his wife are travelling they must 
each take a separate compartment. One day a gentleman and his 
wife came into a first-class compartment and took seats. I came 
afterwards, and took my seat also, and wondered what the result 
would be from a lady taking a seat in the gentlemen's car. I did 
not have to wait long, for the conductor came to the door and 




KOTTIAR CANOES PASSING ROUND ISLAND. 



informed the lady that there was accommodation in the zenana 
carriage for her. She left in great disgust, and her husband had 
to stay with me. Of course, the two were strangers in India. 
Otherwise the husband would have escorted his wife to the 
ladies' carriage, and then looked out for himself in one where 
only gentlemen could ride. 



206 INDIKA. 

Children do not travel much in India. At any rate, I saw but 
few of them on the trains. They are left at home, in the care of 
servants. 

Nothing being furnished in the matter of bedding, how to 
spend the night with any comfort becomes a serious question 
when one has an all-night ride, or perhaps a thousand miles, be- 
fore him. You must take your own bedding, and when you are 
ready to retire you unroll it over your seat, and then betake 
yourself to dreams. On reaching Bombay the Rev. Dr. Eraser 
was considerate enough to supply me with a bichauna, or travel- 
ling outfit for sleep. It was well that he did, for I should never 
have thought of taking all the things he put at my disposal. 
First of all, there was a pillow of cotton flock, which I found 
necessary to supplement my India-rubber pillow which I had 
brought from New York, and had used everywhere on sea 
and land. Then came a light quilted counterpane, of Kash- 
mir origin, and then a thick padded quilt or comforter. To 
these were added sheets, and such other things as one needs 
to complete a railway bed. All this was rolled up into a great 
bundle, and duly strapped. It was, indeed, a most formid- 
able impedimentum, of size enough to frighten any one ex- 
cept an Anglo - Indian. But I did not have too many wraps. 
On the contrary, my good friend, the Rev. 0. L. Bare, of Sha- 
jahanpur, added another thick covering to all the rest, as my 
journey through the Northwest Provinces to Labor was bring- 
ing me within reach of the cold night air from the Himalayas. 
Just as I write these lines, they lift their icy peaks off to the 
right in wild and broken forms. They are now taking on the 
evening rose tints, and the deepening shadows tell of the great 
chasms which no plummet has ever fathomed. The air comes 
down across the plains, and makes one shiver long before the sun 
has set. But this is India, the land of inexplicable contradic- 
tions, and yet of many a bright and beautiful harmony. Even 
at the base of its pyramids of everlasting ice you must protect 
your head, especially the back of it, against the straight rays of 
this terribly sure-shooting sun. 

But the office of the bichauna, or bundle of bedding for travel, 
is not over when you have finished your railway ride. It goes 
with you to jour lodging. The presumption is, that wherever 
you are a guest the hostess will see that your bed is supplied 



WAYS OF INDIAN TRAVEL. 209 

with ample furnishing. But that is not always the rule. Often 
the servant takes your bedding, and puts it on the bed of the 
room where you are to sleep — not that there is not a plenty of 
such dry-goods in the house already for a guest, or even for sev- 
eral, but because it is presumed that you are used to your own 
bedding, and may prefer to have it. In many of the homes where 
I was entertained I saw only the bed frame, with cotton bands 
running across it, and lengthwise, to support the sleeper and his 
wraps. The spring-mattress is not yet the rule. Having gone 
out of my room afterwards, and then returning, I missed my 
bichauna. What had become of it ? I looked again, and yet in 
vain. Who took it off? Had a petty thief slipped in by the 
back-door, and taken away my property % Not at all. Honesty 
reigns here among servants — except only as to pocket-knives 
and scissors. One gentleman told me, at his house, that I might 
leave anything on my table but those two bright things. They 
must always be cared for by yourself, and so concealed. 

But the bichauna f While I was out of my room the bearer 
had come in, unstrapped and unfolded my bedding, and spread 
it all out on the bedstead of my bedroom. So I was to sleep on 
it that night, and all the remaining time when I should be in the 
house as a guest. I grew strangely attached to this bedding. 
How could I ever give it up ? Though it was of immense size, 
and was supplemented by other parcels, it had lost its inconven- 
ience. I naturally became an expert in making my own bed, for 
I had to do it every night spent on the railroad. At first it was 
very awkward work. With all my efforts the things would not 
lie smooth. But in time they took their place more easily. I 
blew up my rubber pillow hastily, was less particular as to when 
the last pillow-slip had been to the dhobi, as everybody in India 
calls the washerman ; and learned to handle my quilts en masse. 
The next morning much less time was needed to strap up the 
bed-clothing. I was soon ready for the anticipated halt, and to 
be greeted at the station by the good missionary, who had a 
programme for work to be done in twenty-four hours that ought 
to occupy at least forty-eight. 

The railroad travel is revolutionizing the whole country. If, 
out of the two hundred and sixty millions of natives of the coun- 
try none would patronize the railroad, because to ride on these 
would break their caste and ruin their souls, what use would a 
U 



210 INBIKA. 

railroad be at best? It was at first a grave question whether 
the travel would pay. But the Hindu is a most adaptable creat- 
ure. Where can his elasticity be equalled? His theology told 
him at the outset that he must not ride on the cars. But that 
theology is a flexible affair, and can fit the last necessity with 
the greatest ease. He suddenly took to reading his eldest Yedas, 
and there he learned that Brahma was to have an eighth incar- 
nation, some time in the far future. Behold, the time has come. 
It is George Stephenson's railroad ! Hence the Hindu now rides 
whither he will. He is making fewer foot pilgrimages, and goes 
on the train. The eighth incarnation is a paying investment. 
Any Brahman may buy a ticket from the dog-paws of an Eng- 
lishman, and flaunt his robes against an American, and yet keep 
his caste intact. The trains, therefore, are nearly always full. 
The thousands who are constantly going upon a pilgrimage to 
some shrine or other, or taking their brass jars to Allahabad or 
Benares, in order to worship in a sacred temple, and bear away 
some of the precious Ganges water to their far-away homes, are 
almost countless. The stations are packed with these pilgrims. 
By night and day one sees them. They swarm like locusts. 
They can sleep anywhere, and live on two cents a day. Often, 
in the case of a mela, or religious fair, or on the sacred days in 
special temples, the railroads are overpacked. An English gen- 
tleman, Mr. Howard, of Allahabad, told me that on the decen- 
nial pilgrimage of Hindus to the junction of the Jamna and the 
Ganges, there are millions who come, and while the most walk 
all the way there and back, sometimes a distance of thousands of 
miles, there are hundreds of thousands who take the trains. The 
trains from the main line to the mela grounds run every five 
minutes, and yet these people crowd in with such persistence 
that there is no withstanding the pressure. This same gentle- 
man informed me that he had seen the railroad officers stand 
with great bamboo rods, and beat away these pilgrims, pound- 
ing them over the head and shoulders with all their might, in 
order to keep back the dense crowd from overwhelming the 
train. 

The pilgrims and ordinary natives take the third-class car- 
riages. But the Europeans are taking to them very rapidly. 
When Bishop William Taylor was making his four years' evan- 
gelistic tour through India he began the custom, among the 



WAYS OF INDIAN TRAVEL 



211 



Europeans, of riding in the third-class cars. It was not considered 
respectable to adopt that humble means of travel. He was asked : 

« Why do you ride in third-class cars ?" 

His quick reply was, 

" Because there are no fourth-class cars." 

Ever since then— so I was told— it has been respectable for 
Europeans to ride in any class. 

The travel in India is the cheapest I have ever known. The 
average cost on the third-class is one half a cent a mile, the 
cost on the second-class is one cent and a half a mile, and that 
on the first-class is three cents a mile. 

One has little trouble with his baggage at the stations. As 
soon as the train stops he has only to go to the door of his com- 
partment and call out, " Kuli hai f"— which means, " Is there a 




A PAIR OF BULLOCKS USED FOR CARRIAGES. 



porter about ?" The question is answered by one or, more likely, 
a half-dozen barefooted natives. 

Two Jculis generally handled my baggage, the hichauna re- 
quiring one and the loose luggage another. They caught up 
my baggage, and carried it easily and carefully. In all my 
journeys I did not see a huli drop or injure a piece of luggage. 
They handle your things as delicately as though each piece was 
a precious stone model of the lace-like marble Taj Mahal. There 
is little destruction of baggage anywhere in India. The pleasure 
of pounding travellers' trunks into pulp is a department of ad- 
vanced Western civilization, which, no doubt, will reach India in 
due time. 

The railway stations are supplied with good restaurants. The 



212 INDIKA. 

four regular meals, in common use in the domestic life of the An- 
glo-Indians, are carefully looked after by the railway authorities. 

One of the most noticeable characteristics of Indian railway 
travel is to be found in the beautiful stations themselves. In 
the southern half of the empire they are kept more neat and 
beautiful than in the northern. Some of the railroads offer prizes 
for the best-kept and neatest station on the line. One road offers 
annually three prizes, one being 150 rupees, another 100 rupees, 
and a third 75 rupees, or $60, $40, and $30 respectively. I found 
the station-masters in the Dekhan persistently competing for the 
prizes. The effect of such encouragement is marvellous. 

Some of the stations are pictures of rare beauty. There are 
plants along all the roads and paths leading to them, while flow- 
ering shrubbery is everywhere made to add beauty to the scene. 
Then in the station, and about its outer walls, there are plants 
growing in large jars. Many of the plants are of rich flower, 
and it is not difficult to see that there is a studied effort to have 
a succession of flowering plants, so that the traveller, so soon as 
he alights, can be greeted by them. The beauty of even the lit- 
tle country stations is amazing. Take obscure Karli as an ex- 
ample. It would be difficult for any one to bring more beauty out 
of the same area than the Eurasian in charge has developed from 
his little bungalow and its narrow enclosure. In another station 
I observed that the master had an antiquarian taste. He had filled 
his waiting-rooms with veritable antique furniture, such as the 
English must have brought out in the early days of the East India 
Company. Such curious tables and chairs, with griffins' claws, 
and other things to match, would set a bric-d-brac maniac doubly 
crazy. Along all the lines the restaurant tables are generally 
burdened with flowers. Even when there are no flowers, one 
sees a few sprigs of fern, or something else, which shows that 
the growths of the garden and the fields are not forgotten. In 
some of the obscurest parts of Calcutta I saw the windows of 
the poorest people smiling with a burden of plants. The blaze 
of flowers is everywhere. India deserves to share with the Ger- 
man Fatherland the beautiful and fragrant empire of flowers. 

The trains do not enter the native Indian city, but stop in the 
English suburbs. The typical Indian city consists of three parts. 
First of all comes the old native city, where the streets are nar- 
row, the houses truly Oriental, and the bazars flash out all the 



WAYS OF INDIAN TRAVEL. 



213 



splendor, gayety, and filth of the Eastern life of five centuries 
ago. The old city may be the original one, or stand on the site 




AN -UNEXPECTED DANGER.— AN ENGINEER'S PREDICAMENT IN INDIA. 

of it ; but most likely it is only a late parvenu descendant of 
the first historically known city. For example, there have been 
six well-known and clearly identified Delhis. That of to-day is 



214 I2WIKA. 

only the last survival of innumerable wasting wars. In Lahor, 
where I am now writing in a dark and quaint old house, there 
have been at least four different cities, all of which can be easily 
identified by the separate types of ruins. Outside of this orig- 
inal Indian city there is a belt of new houses, with large com- 
pounds or grounds, and well protected by high walls. This is the 
English part of the city, and has grown into existence since the 
English captured the country. No Englishman thinks of living 
in the close native city. He always has his home in the outer belt. 

ISTow, it is in this outer belt that you always find the railway. 
I have seen no railroad, so far, which runs into the ancient native 
city or halts right by it. That would be neither business nor 
policy — and the Englishman has an eye to both. The English 
part of the Indian city is where most business is conducted, and 
is the city of the future. Last of all comes what is called the 
Cantonment, which here is always pronounced Can-toon' -merit. 
This is where the soldiers are ; for the English soldiers must still 
guard the country. England took India by the sword, and must 
still hold it in the same way. The Cantonment is the outmost 
circle, the guarding enclosure, of the entire city. 

The hotels of India are conducted by Europeans. They are 
few T in number compared with the many travellers. For ex- 
ample, there are but two large hotels in Bombay, though there 
are many of smaller grade. The guest pays for meals and lodg- 
ings, according to the " American plan," and his charges are 
about four dollars a day. The hotel accommodations at the sta- 
tions, even in the case of large towns, are of a kind peculiar to 
India. Kefreshinents are supplied at the station, where the res- 
taurant is generally well kept and the supply of provisions is 
generous. There is variety as to the sleeping accommodations. 
The native does not want much accommodation. He drops over, 
goes to sleep, and never thinks of the circumstance of a great 
bedstead. But for Europeans the case is different. They have 
no fondness for the floor. There are sleeping provisions made 
for them by having cots or bed-frames, sometimes quite a num- 
ber in a room, or in small rooms with low divisions, the travel- 
lers' own bedding supplying all further need. Where there are 
no bedrooms at the station, there is generally near by, a " rest- 
house," where the traveller can take his bedding, spread it out, 
and come to the station for his meals. At Bassein, for example, 



WA YS OF INDIAN TEA VEL. 



215 




CROSS-COUNTRY TRAVELLING IN INDIA. 



the only place I found for sleeping accommodations was in a 
rest-house about a quarter of a mile from the station, while in 
the station itself there was ample provision for meals. In Ma- 
dura, which has a population of fifty-two thousand, I saw no hotel. 
In the railway station there is an excellent restaurant, while across 
the street from the railway there is a very comfortable rest-house. 
These rest-houses are provided by the railway company, and the 
restaurant is also under the same management. 

In some instances there are hotels, owned by the government, 
in the centre of the larger cities. While in Jaipur I stopped at 
one of these places, the clak-hangla. Here the accommodations 
were excellent and the prices moderate. I copy this bill, as a 
specimen of this particular part of a traveller's life in India : 



No. 783. 



Dr. 



Two Gentlemen 
To BISHUMBER NATH, 

Proprietor, "UNITED SERVICE HOTEL." Established 1865. 
DELHI, AGRA, AND JEYPORE. STATE DAK-BUNGALOW. 

1885. %S=It is particularly requested that the amount should be paid on presentation of Bill. 





28 


To 2 Small Breakfasts 


Rupees. 
3 


Annas. 

12 

2 

6 


Pies. 


Rupees. 

4 
i 

2 


Annas. 

4 

2 


Pies. 




" A Light 






" 1 Cup Tea 






" 2 Dinners 







" 1 Hot Bath 

















" Carriage to Train 


_ 




" Room 1 Day, or Oceu- \ 
pation fee \ 

" Carriage - hire for the ) 

Country \ 

Total Rupees... 


— 




7 
4 


6 


— 










11 


6 


— 



Delhi, Agra, and Jeypore. 
Jan. 28, 1885. 



E. E. Received Payment with thanks, 
"W. Abbott, Manager. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

MADRAS.— PAST AND PRESENT. 

On arriving at Madras, by the early morning train, I found 
the atmosphere in a steamy, misty condition. There had been a 
terrific monsoon, which had uprooted trees and torn down many 
native huts. The sun, which had now come out clearly again, 
was rapidly drying the earth, and producing a suffocating air. 
This, however, lasted only a day or two, though at no time dur- 
ing my stay was the atmosphere of Madras as exhilarating as in 
the upper Dekhan. After passing through pools of water and 
among uprooted banyan-trees, we reached the delightful home 
of the Eev. Cecil M. Barrow, M.A., Principal of the Doveton Col- 
lege, who, with characteristic Anglo-Indian hospitality, had in- 
vited me to be his guest for a week. In no place in India was I 
made more thoroughly comfortable than here. This gentleman 
and his excellent lady had been long in India, and to their ac- 
curate knowledge of the country and its people I have been a 
great debtor. 

The buildings of the Doveton College are situated in the rear 
of Mr. Barrow's dwelling. He is known to literature for his su- 
perbly annotated edition of Shakespeare's " Henry Y'.," and for 
various text-books which have grown out of his experience as a 
teacher. Mrs. Barrow, who has the same tastes as her husband, 
and has a minute knowledge of the better productions of Eng- 
lish literature, gave me a cordial welcome, and made me quite 
forget, for the moment, my far wanderings. Mr. Barrow has 
done more to introduce into India the rich training of Oxford 
than any other gentleman whom I met in the country. By a happy 
accident — or was it only a yielding to my infirmity % — -the rooms 
assigned me included Mr. Barrow's working library. My bed 
was in the middle of it, almost within reach of the masters in all 
literatures. To add to the kind services of this excellent family, 
when I left Madras for Ceylon, Mrs. Barrow supplied me with a 



MADRAS.— PAST AND PRESENT. 



217 



letter of introduction to the Messrs. Ferguson, of Colombo, which 
opened the way to sources of unexpected enjoyment on the isl- 
and, and to a study of its history and conditions, which other- 
wise I should have been entirely without. 

Here, in the Presidency of Madras, was the beginning of the 
English possession of South India. A small strip of land along 
the coast, six miles long and one mile wide, was bought by the 
East India Company for six hundred pounds a year. The Kajah 
of Chanclragiri made the sale, and conveyed the property in a 
title-deed engraved on a plate of gold. 




HINDU BARBER, MADRAS. 



There are three sections of Madras. Yepery is the part where 
the English population reside. The houses are large, retired 
within spacious grounds, and thoroughly comfortable. There is 
a gateway in the enclosing wall or railing, on which, as a rule, 
the name of the resident is found. These houses are so far apart 
as to present the idea of country homes, but it is the way the 
English have learned, by their long experience in India, to be 
most comfortable. The grounds are the " compound." You are 
protected from the noise and dust of the thoroughfare, there is 
ample space for the children and for promenading, and for addi- 
tional buildings. Most missionaries find it necessary to conform 



218 INDIKA. 

to the same rule. The quiet compound is universal. The mis- 
sionaries are, for the most part, as much removed from the native 
quarter as though they did not live on the same hemisphere. 

The next section of Madras is Blacktown, where the bazar, 
the stores of all kinds, and the offices are situated. Here, when- 
ever they can be crowded in, are the lodging-places of the native 
population. The third section, fronting the sea, is devoted to 
the various kinds of government buildings. In the midst of this 
last class is St. Mary's Church. 

The Madras population is about four hundred thousand. The 
entire coast is perhaps more swept by cyclones than any part of 
the Asiatic world, and though Madras is an old city, and has 
long been in English hands, there is to this day no good break- 
water. A very strong one, built of granite blocks twenty-five 
feet long, was broken down by the cyclone of 1881. The result 
is, that when a storm arises the ships must lift anchor and stand 
well out to sea, in order to be kept from dragging anchor and 
being thrown upon the shore. Even in the usual weather the 
surf is generally heavy, and it is very difficult to go out in the 
queerly constructed boats and climb up the side of the vessel. 

When I was about embarking here for Colombo I hired a 
boat, manned by eleven men. The waves tossed the boat high, 
and then dropped it correspondingly low. The usual boat here 
is built of mango-wood, caulked with straw, and sewed with 
strings of cocoa bark. The steamer lay about a third of a mile 
from the shore. Her great and lengthy chain was made fast to 
an iron buoy, and with every surge of the vessel this chain would 
tighten and be lifted out of the sea, or sink proportionately be- 
low it. My rowers were going to row deliberately over this 
chain. " What," thought I, " would be my fate should the chain 
tighten as we cross it? It would pitch our craft far into the 
air." I remonstrated, begged the men to row around the buoy 
— any course but the one on which they were bent. But they 
would not vary a whit from their line. It was the shortest way 
to the steamer. They watched their chance, when the chain 
was deep in the water, and so we shot safely over it. Now was 
an opportunity for drawing a long and free breath. By and by 
we reached the vessel's side. 

But now came a new difficulty. The tossing of the waves 
brought our small boat high up along the stairway, and now 



MADRAS.— PAST AND PRESENT. 



219 



dropped it as far below the lowest step. There is often here, I 
was informed, a rise and fall of twenty-five feet, so that one can 
easily imagine that there must often be a long pause before he 
can step easily and safely from his boat to the ship's ladder. 
Formerly, ladies had to be tied firmly in chairs, and lifted or 
lowered, as the case might be, from the yard-arm of the vessel. 
In my case the operation was most tedious. Up and down our 
boat went, and I chose to await my opportunity to step on the 
ladder. The officer on the steamer's deck shouted down to me : 

" Kow's your chance !" 

" Not yet, so far as I can see," was my reply. 

He waited impatiently, and showed plainly that, as I was 
about the last passenger to come 
on board, I had better be hurry- 
ing a little. By and by our boat 
came to a halt on a plane with 
the foot of the stepway, and I 
escaped from my shaky prison, 
and walked easily up to the deck. 

But my baggage ? I had a very 
large and heavy trunk, with far 
too many books in it. Then came 
smaller parcels, together with my 
great bichauna. I determined 
not to witness the operation of 
getting that trunk on the deck. 
To all appearance the chances 
were that it would soon be at the 

bottom of Madras harbor. Some Madrasi jugglers were perform- 
ing on deck for the amusement of the passengers ; and other na- 
tives, in most scanty robes, were selling boxes of sea-shells and 
other curios. I went to the knot of spectators, and resolved to be 
patient, not knowing but that I should hear a splash, and then 
be informed that my trunk had been unfortunate. My eyes were 
on the jugglers' tricks, but my mind was on my treasures in the 
trunk. The time seemed long. But by and by there was a big 
buzz at the gangway. A troop of natives had dragged my trunk 
up the steps, and placed it safely on the steamer. Poor perspir- 
ing fellows ! They had well earned their money. In due time 
the smaller baggage was brought up safely, and placed as a guard 




TAMIL GIRL. 



220 INDIRA. 

around the ponderous trunk. If I had my Indian experience to 
go over again, I would take all my belongings in bags, however 
great the number, and leave all the trunks at home. 

In and about the government buildings were planned, in the 
last century, the great arrangements which led to the conquest 
of Southern India. The Fort was taken and retaken again and 
again, by French and English, when Dupleix and Bourdonnais 
and Lally conceived the magnitude of India's future, and were 
intent upon conquering the land for fair France. The keys of 
the Madras Fort were the keys of empire for the whole of India. 
It was a proud day, the 10th of September, 1746, when Bourdon- 
nais, in the name of the King of France, received those keys 
in surrender from English hands. Both French and English knew 
that this was the key to all Southern India. Hence, twelve years 
later the French were defeated on the same spot. Then came, 
in 1769, Haidar Ali, at the head of his victorious army, and dic- 
tated terms of peace. The English were threatened on every 
side. It seemed as if they would soon be driven out of India. 

There now came in a new factor. There sat at a plain desk 
in the "Writers' Building a youth fresh from England — "Bob 
Clive." He was destined to eclipse all others in connection with 
England's conquest of India. Born in Shropshire, England, in 
1725, he landed in India when only eighteen years of age. His 
parents sent him out in the East India Company's service, not 
knowing what to do with him at home. He became a clerk, and 
pretended to keep accounts and make out bills of lading. Sud- 
denly the idea of India's future importance to England aroused 
him. The same thought, however, possessed Dupleix, the brill- 
iant Frenchman, who applied it to his own country, and saw in 
the India of the future a great Oriental France. Clive saw for 
England what Dupleix had earlier seen for France. If India 
was desirable for France, why not for England ? Clive formed 
a resolution to do his part to outwit and outfight Dupleix, and 
make India an English possession. His despair forsook him. He 
had twice attempted to shoot himself, but his pistol failed to dis- 
charge. He shut up his ledger, never to return to it again. The 
young man now became a soldier, enlisting first as an ensign. 
He entered into friendly relations with the commanding officer 
at Madras. Then began the long duel between him and Du- 
pleix, along the Madras coast, for the possession of all India. 




A HINDU YOUNG KULI WOMAN, MADRAS. 



He entered on his military career as a commissary, with the rank 
of captain, under Major Lawrence. He came out of it the con- 
queror of India for England. 

Clive was a new character to India. The French were in 
alliance with the natives. In due time Clive learned the native 
tricks, and caught the secret of dividing tribes. His methods 
were unscrupulous, but he justified himself on the ground that 
he was dealing with Indians, and must practise their own usages. 
His memorable answer, when afterwards charged at home with 



222 INDIRA. 

appropriating the vast wealth of native rulers, shows the bent of 
his mind : " When I remember my opportunity I am surprised at 
my own moderation !" It was during Olive's second visit to 
India that he fought the battle of Plassey, near Calcutta. Had 
he failed here, the French would have held the country, and all 
the fruits of the victories in the south would have been lost. But 
Clive won here, as everywhere else. 

The Fort at Madras contains, in addition to its stores of mili- 
tary material, the large rooms in which all the old records are 
kept, and the governor's reception-room, sixty feet in length. 
In the Arsenal there are some curious relics of the old conflicts 
for the possession of the country, such as Dutch and French 
flags ; two great helmets belonging to defeated native chiefs ; a 
brass mortar, shaped like a tiger ready to spring upon its prey ; 
the little iron cage in which Captain Armstrong had been kept 
a prisoner seven months in China ; tiger-headed guns captured 
at Seringapatam in 1792; the six keys of Pondicherri, taken in 
1778 ; a bloody projectile, which, when once blown out of the 
cannon, opens into a double-bladed sword, of nearly six feet in 
length ; leather petards, with straps to fasten them to a gate, 
and many other objects known only to relentless Indian warfare. 

St. Mary's Church is a fitting companion to the Fort. Eng- 
land's triumph in India has been due as much to her religion 
as to her sword. This historical Christian temple contains tab- 
lets to officers and others who have taken noble part in the con- 
quest of India. But there are other tablets, to wives and chil- 
dren, reciting their virtues, and telling the ever old, and ever 
new, story of broken English hearts far off from home. 

Madras is not without its American associations. Standing 
out at a distance from the Fort there is a tomb, with a square 
base and a pyramidal tower. One tablet contains a brief ac- 
count of the marriage of Elihu Yale, who was governor of Ma- 
dras, to the widow of Joseph Himers, a member of the council. 
She was ready for Yale's overture, and married him five months 
after her former husband's death — so narrates this inscription. 
The history of Yale is remarkable. He appeared afterwards in 
America, and settled in New Haven. His first gifts to a college 
there were larger, and perhaps earlier, than Branford's, when 
the latter gave his library in these words : " I give these books 
for founding a college in Connecticut." At any rate, the college 



MADRAS.— PAST AND PRESENT. 



223 



was considered more indebted for its permanence to Elihu Yale 
than to any one else, and hence has borne his name ever since. 

Another American association is here called up. Close to the 
Fort, under a stone canopy, is Chantry's magnificent statue of 
Cornwallis. From his surrender to Washington at Yorktown 
that officer went to India, and really retrieved there the prestige 
he had lost by the failure to subdue the American colonies. 

The great drive in Madras is on the beautiful road along the 
beach. Here, in the late afternoon, the English residents take 
their airing. Many of the equipages are very handsome, with a 
full supply of liveried servants and outriders. The air from the 
sea is cool and delicious. The ladies, in the carriages, call for 
their husbands at their places of business, and the family take 
the evening drive together. When the drive is over they return 
home for dinner, which is as late in beginning as it is slow in 
ending. 




TABLE OR STOOL, IN COARSE OLD SILVER. 



CHAPTEK XXII. 

MY MADRASI HOME. 

A Madrasi home, occupied by an English family long in the 
country, is a type of the English residences everywhere in India. 
There is, however, this single exception — the grounds are larger, 
and the house more retired, than I had elsewhere seen. 

The first story of my Madrasi home was occupied mostly by 
servants, and the family have little to do with it. By a broad 
stairway you ascend to the upper veranda, where the family 
spend most of the time. This veranda is immense — one hun- 
dred and fifty feet long and about fifty broad. There are chairs 
and lounges scattered here and there, nearly all made of open 
rattan-work, and of the fine designs peculiar to the East. They 
have taken shape, most likely, from old-time Indian models, but 
have undergone some English adaptations. The rocking-chair 
appeared here as a regular institution. Here, on this veranda, 
were little tables, where books and newspapers lay. The latest 
London Times was just twenty-four days old. The ladies sit 
here and sew or read, as they choose. If there is any breeze at 
all, it is sure to sweep past this veranda, and those who recline 
in the easy-chairs can catch it. The drawing-room differs little, 
except in higher ceiling and broader spaces, from an American 
parlor. All the hangings are light, and every window is pro- 
tected by Venetian blinds. The thick American curtain, which 
hangs before the window, and keeps out the sunlight and the 
sweet breath of the sky, is not known in India. The bedroom 
is large and airy. Insects, like all forms of life, abound in India, 
and minute precautions are taken against them in the Indian 
home. My bed, for example, is placed in the middle of the 
floor, and consists of the very lightest frame imaginable. Pains 
are generally taken to have the legs of the bedstead stand on 
glass or metallic rests, to prevent insects from finding an easy as- 
cent. My table is a broad mahogany one. It is a luxury to have 
room in which to lay out your books and papers ! No wonder 



M T MADBASI HOME. 



225 



the Indians use mahogany. Their white ants find it too hard 
and distasteful to burrow through. Eacks for clothing are not 
against the wall, but stand out in the floor. Clothes-presses, and 
other places for concealing your clothing, are avoided. Every- 
thing is done to prevent the insects from concealing themselves 
in your garments. Crickets abound, and if one is not careful 
they will ruin his new coat the first night he gets it from the 
tailor's. Everything must be kept not only as secure from the 
prowling and climbing insects as possible, but ought to be shaken 
out before being put on. 

I was as much amused at the crows of Madras as at any one 
feature of its animated life. They are very tame, and as wise 




LITTLE INNOCENTS ABROAD. 



as any that ever pulled up an Ohio farmer's corn, and then knew 
how to keep at a safe distance from his gun. They fly into any 
part of the Madrasi home, and caw away at one as if he were the 
East India Company and the stranger only a Frenchman. They 
perch over the door in the transom while the guest is at breakfast, 
and wait impatiently for him to eat his last spoonful of rice and 
curry and his last plantain. The moment the persons who have 
been breakfasting are gone the crows swoop clown on the table, and 
pick up anything they can find, and are off with it. The servants 
have to watch them all the time, to keep dishes designed for the 
table out of their grasp. They are especially fond of the kitchen, 
and have to be watched, as remorseless depredators, all the time. 
15 



226 INDIRA. 

My host, Mr. Barrow, on whose broad piazza the circumstance 
happened, in the presence of his family, told me the following 
story of two crows : His dog, a white fox-terrier, lay on his fore- 
paws, gnawing a bone. A crow wished the bone, and came down 
and stood beside the dog and began to peck at him. The dog 
snarled, but was not to be cheated out of his bone. He held it 
firmly, for experience had taught him that it would take its flight 
the moment he lost his grip. The crow saw that he was unequal 
to the task of getting the bone, and so he disappeared. In a 
short time two crows appeared upon the scene. One sat before 
the dog and the other behind him. The one in the rear pecked 
the dog violently ; and when the attacked quadruped wheeled 
round to resist his assailant the crow in front caught up the bone 
and sailed off with it. Of course, the other crow had no further 
motive for remaining, and the two flew away in company to 
enjoy together their ill-gotten gain. 

But the crows of Madras are not confined to homes. They are 
church-goers. The Sunday morning I worshipped in the Black 
Town church they were present in full number and speech. They 
cawed uninterruptedly during parts of the service. They sat on 
the rafters and along the spaces in the upper weather-boarding 
which had been left open for ventilation. As there was nothing 
for them to eat, and never had been, I have not yet learned what 
induced them to come, except simply to be ready in case some 
edibles should be forthcoming. Nobody paid the slightest atten- 
tion to them. Every one was used to their consummate impu- 
dence. As the fatigue of my long railroad ride had taken away 
my voice completely, my kind host, Mr. Barrow, took my place 
in the pulpit. The denominational landmarks undergo a won- 
derful diminution in India. There is always brotherhood on the 
front line. One has to get even as far away as to the Christian- 
ity in a pagan land to see the full beauty of Christian unity. 

There are flowers in abundance about my Madrasi home. 
They are planted in pots, and fill up all available spaces. You 
see them in their bright and delicate tints, caught from the equa- 
torial sun, in the recesses of the verandas, on the doorstep, along 
the balconies, out on the sward, and wherever there is. the space 
to put them. Large flowering shrubs adorn the compound, and 
relieve the scene of verdure. The varieties are mostly Oriental. 
Excepting roses, I saw few specimens with which I had been 



MY MADRASI HOME. 227' 

familiar in the Western lands. Some trees are fragrant with 
their blossoms, and the aroma reminds me of that of orange 
flowers more than of any other variety. 

The meals are differently timed from those of one's earlier and 
Occidental life. I had become somewhat accustomed to the rev- 
olution while on board ship, coming to Bomba} r . In India itself 
there is the same new arrangement, only everything has a greater 
emphasis. For instance, the curry of India itself has a sting to 
it of which I had not a suspicion before. Your eating in this 
country is based on the necessities of the climate rather than on 
the humors of the people or the force of fashion. For example, you 
must rise earty in the morning, or you will do but little through 
the day. The time when the average American business man gets 
to work, say nine o'clock, or somewhat later, is about the hour 
when the Anglo-Indian expects to be really through with his 
morning's labor, and, indeed, well on towards his day's task. My 
host rises about four, and by eight or nine he has done the larger 
part of his day's work. The first meal you take is the choti-hazari, 
or little breakfast, which consists of a cup of coffee, or, more fre- 
quently, Indian tea, and a single slice of toast or buttered bread. 
The code requires you to take this as the first thing, and to do 
no work whatever until you have had your choti-hazari. You are 
now ready for work at your desk, in literary labor, or anything 
else which does not require you to leave your house. 

If your duties make you leave your house for a place of busi- 
ness elsewhere in the city, you do not go thither before nine 
o'clock at the earliest. When endeavoring to secure a ticket 
for the steamer to Ceylon, not a single responsible clerk in Bin- 
ny's office could be found before ten o'clock ; and this, too, on the 
sailing-day of the steamer. 

It is in the early hours, before the sun is high, and even be- 
fore he is up, that you must do your walking. There is danger 
of sunstroke to an unaccustomed head without careful guarding, 
even very early. Judge Muir, of Bombay, told me that he re- 
garded the sun as having its most dangerous power before seven 
in the morning. You must wear your pith helmet, and also 
take your white umbrella, no matter how soon you start for 
your walk, lest the sun do damage before you get back. 

Breakfast is in order any time from ten until one. It is the most 
flexible Indian meal. On the steamers the regular hour for it is 



228 INDIRA. 

one. In my Madrasi home it was at eleven. It is simply the mid- 
day meal, and whenever it does come one is safe in calling it 
B breakf ast, or the French dejeuner ; although Anglo-Indians gen- 
erally speak of it as tiffin. It consists of about four courses ; 
frequently beginning with soup, and always concluding the main 
dishes with rice and curry. It is simply a small dinner, served in 
table d'hote style. There is no mixing of dishes. When the steak 
and potatoes are handed around, and you have finished that 
course, your plate and knife and fork are removed, and you are 
served with others for the next course. If there are six courses, 
you have each in succession, and only one or two articles served 
at a time. I did not find that fruit is used to begin a meal with, 
but is always brought in at the close. Flowers are often put 
on the table— not a trim bouquet, but simply a bunch of loose 
flowers, as though caught up in a pleasing hurry, after the man- 
ner of Nature's charming negligence. 

The meats are much the same as with us— beef, mutton, and 
fish being the staples. Teal is a favorite game in Madras. Fruits 
are the loose-skinned orange, the plantain, and the pomegranate. 
Grapes do not prosper, and are scanty. Apples come from the 
upper country, as the lower lands in India do not produce them. 
The best I have seen in India were in the great fruit-market of Bom- 
bay. They were beautiful in color, but too sweet to be palatable. 
Throughout India there is a prevailing silence after breakfast. 
You are expected to take yourself away. People who have little 
to do can remember that they rose early, and that now they can 
sleep awhile, and make up for lost time. In offices, and busi- 
ness places generally, there is a universal pause for tiffin, Many 
mercantile houses are entirely closed, and I found some incon- 
venience in small business matters because no one was to be seen, 
and I had to go back again later in the afternoon. About two 
o'clock there is a stir again, and matters move on briskly until 
six o'clock, when dinner may come ; or it may be half-past 
seven, or even later. 

Dinner is the Anglo-Indian's great stand-by. Whatever else 
suffers, his dinner must come, and he is not going to hurry from 
it. It, like the tiffin, is always served in the table d'hdte style. 
It begins with soup, then come the fish, meats, and vegetables, 
in due order. The rice and curry must come at the last. You 
do not eat it with the fork alone, but with the spoon and fork 



MY MADRASI HOME. 



229 



together. I was told, very soon after landing, that I must not 
fail to conform to two things — never use the word "sir" in con- 
versing with clergymen, and always eat my rice with both spoon 
and fork, the spoon in my left hand and the fork in my right. 
Of course, I was careful of both pieces of advice. The shunning 
of the word " sir " seems to have some reference to the servants, 




A STRIKING SPECTACLE. — ILLUMINATION OP THE SURE. 



who use it in addressing their Anglo-Indian employers. It is a 
suggestion, not of equality, as with us, but of the difference be- 
tween the upper and lower social orders. 

The dinner lasts a good while. Nobody has any motive for 
hurrying. The day's work is done, and the longer it is spun out 
the fuller the conversation. When dinner is over the family and 



230 INDIRA. 

their guests go out upon the veranda and take eas} r seats. The 
more space one can occupy the better. There is plenty of room 
everywhere — no crowding, lofty ceilings, great wicker chairs. 

One of the peculiarities of the country is the panhhas, or fans, 
suspended from the ceiling. These are short hangings, gener- 
ally of stiff brown linen, about a foot wide and often many yards 
long, according to the space you wish to have fanned. The frame, 
for instance, on steamers, is the length of the tables. A thin 
rope is attached to it, and is run through a hole in the wall, or 
runs over a wheel, and a servant outside pulls it, and you are 
fanned. You sit right under it, and the fanning goes on all the 
time, while the poor fellow who is pulling the rope by which 
you are fanned is sweltering away in the next room, or even at 
a greater distance. 

You see the pankha everywhere. No house is without it. 
"When you call, even before you have doffed your helmet and 
rubbed away the perspiration, you find yourself fanned. The 
swinging thing goes on all the time you are in your friend's house. 
In the hot season these fans often go all night, right over your 
bed. Multitudes of Anglo-Indians could not sleep without being 
fanned all the while. They would well-nigh suffocate. All the 
counting-houses have them. Not a bank in the country, or a 
steamer-office, but has them swinging away, hulls pulling them 
back and forth. Poor fellows, they often go to sleep ; and even 
then they swing them back and forth. I saw one sleeping in a 
Bombay bank, and yet his hand tugged away at his work. Some- 
times, when they get utterly worn out, they will tie the rope to 
one of their feet, and pull away with that until they have rested 
their arms. 

When I first saw & pankha in a church it struck me as a most 
amusing arrangement. But I soon became accustomed to even 
the ecclesiastical pankhas. In one of the English churches in 
Madras there are not only pankhas for the entire congregation, 
but for the clerk and reader, and right over the pulpit, for the 
preacher while he is preaching. You see few individual fans. 
People think that as much caloric is evolved by using one as 
there would be without it. Strangely enough, no one has as yet 
invented a machine for fanning. The man who does it will liber- 
ate from monotony scores of thousands of hulls who are tugging 
at these ropes and fanning their Anglo-Saxon conquerors. 



CHAPTEK XXIII. 

COALS TO AN INDIAN NEWCASTLE. 

One of the most curious of all the recent phenomena of Hindu 
thought is an American reinforcement of Buddhism. Madras 
seems to have been a chosen Theosophic centre. I had not been 
in India a day — indeed, I had not landed as yet — before I heard 
from Anglo-Indians concerning the doings of Madame Blavatsky 
and Colonel Olcott. That is the order in which these now no- 
torious names are usually presented. 

In 1875, the Theosophical Society was founded in New York. 
Its objects, as stated in the " rules," were declared to be : " 1. 
To form the nucleus of a universal brotherhood of humanity, 
without distinction of race, creed, or color. 2. To promote 
the study of Aryan and other Eastern literature, religions, and 
sciences, and vindicate its importance. 3. To investigate the 
hidden mysteries of nature and the psychical powers latent in 
man." 

Colonel H. S. Olcott and Madame Helen B. Blavatsky were 
founders of this society. Olcott, of New York, had been an 
officer in the Civil War in America, and seems to have long 
been a firm believer in spiritualistic operations. Blavatsky, 
the author of " Isis Unveiled," was the daughter of Colonel 
Hahn, of the Russian Horse Artillery, and quondam widow of 
General Blavatsky, Governor of Erivan, in Armenia, during the 
Crimean War.* These kindred spirits regarded India as a fair 
field for the display of their genius, and for their double cru- 
sade to overthrow Christianity and to substitute for it an eclectic 
Oriental s} r stem. 

They arrived in India in February, 1879, and began their work 
in Bombay. They declared themselves the representatives of a 

* B. H. Baclley, D.D., article, " The Rise and Fall of Theosophy in India," 
in Christian Advocate, New York, April 21, 1887. 



232 INDIRA. 

large religio-philosophical society in New York, and solicited 
the attention and co-operation of cultivated natives of India. 
From Bombay they went to Madras, Here they made the real 
beginning of their success in India. They met an educated na- 
tive, Damodar K. Manalankar, who had some money, and was 
therefore especially attractive. He entered into relationship with 
them. The Theosophist, designed to be the organ of the new 
movement, was established. It published reports of meetings, 
gave information of the objects of the Theosophic apostles, 
published accounts of the remarkable phenomena accompany- 
ing the work of the leaders, set forth the great advantages 
which would come to India by accepting these special doc- 
trines, and flattered the pride of the natives by telling them 
that they had, already, much of the very essence which these 
people had come to India to reveal once more. The Coulombs, 
a family destined to play the important part of an exposure of 
the whole of this precious nonsense, cordially co-operated with 
Blavatsky, Olcott, and Company.* 

Blavatsky and Olcott next went to the north, and established 
themselves in Simla. This being the summer seat of the govern- 
ment, should they succeed in this important political and social 
centre, they could hope for great things throughout the country. 
Here they gained a very important disciple — A. P. Sinnett, the 
editor of the Pioneer, the leading daily of India, published at 
Allahabad, and author of a work on " Occult Science." The 
system w r as here expounded at great length. The two chief 
apostles of the new world-faith had the help of various spirits, 
who were members of the Tibetan brotherhood spoken of as 
Mahatmas. But these two people were not particular about 
the origin of their belief. Buddhism seems to have furnished 
the principal element, but all the old and dying religions of 
India were drawn upon at will. Olcott became a Hindu among 
the Hindus, a Buddhist among the Buddhists, a Mussulman 
among the Mussulmans, and a Zoroastrian among the fire-wor- 
shippers — praising up every system of religion except Christian- 
ity, though himself a professed Buddhist.f 



* "The Theosophical Society," by Rev. Arthur Theophilus, Madras, 1882, 
p. 18. 

t The Theosophist, May, 1882, p. 191. 



COALS TO AN INDIAN NEWCASTLE. 233 



The War on Christianity. 

Of the intense opposition of this mongrel faith to Christianity, 
we may judge by the following declarations : " Trinitarianism 
may supersede religions that are inferior to it, such as devil 
worship and various forms of gross idolatry; but it will never 
supplant a pure monotheistic faith, seeing that it is hampered 
not only with the clumsy theology of a Father, a Son, and a 
third person, being one and the same God, but also with the 
doctrine of incarnation." In another place, Christianity is thus 
scoffed at : " It is a scheme of thought which throws reason and 
logic overboard altogether, and rests its claims entirely on sen- 
timentality ; it is a religion, in fact, fit for women and not men." 
Olcott speaks of Shem, Ham, and Japheth as " the mythical sons 
of the imaginary JSToah." Of the Biblical chronology he says : 
" When the ancient historical mines of the Egyptian hieroglyphs, 
the Sanskrit Shastras, and the Assyrian tile records were once 
opened, antiquity was pushed back countless ce?ituries, and the 
Biblical chronology fell to pieces." * Of the missionaries in 
India, he says that they are "lazy, ignorant, and good-for- 
nothing." He says of Christendom, that it "shows her real 
principles in her Armstrong guns and whiskey distilleries, her 
opium ships, sophisticated merchandise, prurient amusements, 
licentious habits, and political dishonesty." f 

These apostles of Theosophy were careful to visit the mission 
fields, and to counteract, so far as they could, the work of the 
apostles of Christ. So soon as they became known as opponents 
of the Christian faith, many of the educated natives gave them 
a hearing, hired halls for the seances, and welcomed them 
within their doors. I know of one place where there was such 
eagerness to hear them, and for the honor of entertaining them, 
that, on their arrival at the railway station, there were seven 
equipages in waiting, competing for the privilege of taking them 
to native homes as honored guests. Many of the larger cities 
in the north were visited, such as Calcutta, Lucknow, and Al- 
lahabad. Everywhere there was great flourish of trumpets, 

* "Farewell Address in Patcheapper's Hall." 

t " The Whole Truth about the Theosophical Society," p. 21. 



234 INDIRA. 

and the success of Blavatsky and Olcott in propagating their 
opinions was heralded in all directions. 

The Absurdity Exposed. 

But a marvellous change came over the calm progress of 
this revived pagan wisdom. In Madras the Coulombs, who 
had been the chosen intimates and friends of the two apostles 
of the ancient Theosophy of the Hindus. There seems to have 
been a disturbance of the friendly relations of the Coulombs 
and the apostles, even while they were living together in such 
apparent unanimity. But Blavatsky and Olcott went to Europe, 
and, whether the money for the Coulombs gave out, or what- 
ever be the cause, this much is true, that the Coulombs ex- 
posed the Theosophic trick. Madame did the least shrewd thing 
in all this propagation of her notions when she went away from 
Madras, and left her papers scattered about in confusion, and 
left the Coulombs in possession of her private letters, in which 
she explained and gave directions for constructing the entire 
machinery of the esoteric Theosophy. 

In Madras there is published the Madras Christian College 
Magazine, a monthly of about one hundred octavo pages. It 
is an excellent serial, and not only possesses great value for its 
light on Indian topics, but on general evangelical and theologi- 
cal themes. In September, 1884, it startled its readers by an 
excellent piece of literary enterprise. It secured the whole 
mass of the correspondence of Blavatsky with the Coulombs. 
There was no mistake as to the evidence. It was too direct to 
be gainsaid. The writing of the letters was in the exact hand 
of the author herself, and an expert has recently published an 
excellent pamphlet, in which he gives a report of each of the 
letters, and shows by peculiarities in the handwriting the gen- 
uineness of the published correspondence. His painstaking report 
covers the whole case, and would serve as an excellent model for all 
similar attempts to determine the genuineness of any manuscript. 

We now come to the letters themselves. The editors of the 
magazine say : " We have weighed the responsibility and re- 
solved to take it up. After satisfying ourselves by every pre- 
caution that the sources of the following narrative are genuine 
and authentic, we have resolved, in the interests of public mo- 
rality, to publish it." 



COALS TO AN INDIAN NEWCASTLE. 235 

Madame smokes cigarettes, and her cigarette papers play an 
important part in all her scenic displays. In many cases, her 
method is to take a cigarette paper, mark it in some way, or 
tear off a corner in a peculiar line, and then, by her occult forces, 
despatch this paper to some remote place, where her deluded 
votaries find it. Here is a specimen letter, written from Madras : 

" Last niglit, Sunday, I wanted to show my friends a phenomenon, and sent 
a cigarette tied up with my hair, to be placed opposite Watson's Hotel (Bom- 
bay), in the coat of arms, under the Prince of Wales's statue, under the horn 
of the unicorn. Captain Maitland had himself chosen the town and named 
the place. He spent thirteen rupees for a telegram to Police Commissioner 
Grant, his brother-in-law. The latter went the moment he received it, and 
found nothing. It is a dead failure, but I do not believe it, for I saw it there 
clearly at three in the morning. I am sorry for it, for Captain Maitland is a 
Theosophist, and spent money over it. They want to tear the cigarette paper 
in two, and keep one half. And I will choose the same places, with the ex- 
ception of the prince's statue, for our enemies might watch and see the cigar- 
ette fall and destroy it. I enclose an envelope, with a cigarette paper in it. 
I will drop another half of a cigarette behind the queen's head, where I dropped 
my hair the same day, or Saturday. Is the hair still there ? and a cigarette 
still under the cover ? Oh God, oh God ! What a pity ! 

" Yours faithfully, H. P. B." 

On a slip of paper accompanying the above, the following 
was written : 

" Roll a cigarette of this half, and tie it with H. P. B.'s hair. Put it on the 
top of the cupboard made by Nunbridge, to the farthest corner near the wall 
on the right. Do it quick." 

ISTow the one great thing revealed by this letter was, that all 
the details are arranged beforehand. ]S r o wonder the Theosophy 
succeeded for a time. To convince the believers, or persons 
whom it is hoped to make believers, in this alleged occult faith, 
great events must be brought to pass. A thing must be done 
with a slip of paper,. and instantaneously the paper, or what- 
ever it is, must be found a thousand miles away. Of course, 
when the other slip has been previously sent away, and the 
object already deposited, it is very easy afterwards to say, " Go 
and find it." Naturally enough, it is found. 

One of the chief forms of impressing the people was to de- 
clare the unknown and the unknowable. These strolling per- 
sons claimed that they could write down a request for a thing, 
and in a few minutes receive an answer from the far-off Tibetan 



236 INDIKA. 

Kut Humi. A person might lose a brooch, but, by proper repre- 
sentation to Madame and Colonel, Kut Humi would instantly re- 
ply that it was under a certain tree, and that it could be found 
there. Of course, with such distinctness of reply, such specific 
response, the result was always satisfactory. Still they did 
some wondrous things, and some mysteries which their jugglery 
has brought to pass have not yet been solved. Madame, in 
one letter, is very anxious that something should happen in 
Bombay to convince the sceptical. In another, she expresses 
her anxiety that Jacob Lasoon, a man of immense wealth, living 
in Puna, should become a disciple ; for, in that case, he would 
give ten thousand rupees to repair the Theosophic headquarters. 
In another she writes to Madame Coulomb : "I beg you to send 
this letter (here enclosed) to Damodar in a miraculous way. It 
is very important." Of a certain attempt to play a handker- 
chief trick, she wrote : " I believe the handkerchief is a failure. 
Every one here is anxious to see something. My hair will do 
well on the old tower in Siam, or even in Bombay. Select a 
good spot, and write me at Amritsar poste restahte. . . . Have 
you put the cigarette on the cupboard of Nunbridge % Do some- 
thing for the old man, Damodar's father." 

These tricks were of such thin disguise that it would seem 
impossible to deceive any one. Everything was arranged in all 
details, either by mail or telegraph, and the curiosity and in- 
quiry of those whom it was desirable to deceive were gradually 
led along the desired line, and to these individuals were sug- 
gested just the things they asked for. Hence the trick suc- 
ceeded. But there were cases w T hen things have had to be done 
with more despatch than even the post or telegraph furnish. 
Then, by adroit prearrangement, Kut Humi dropped his divine 
answers down through crevices in the ceiling. M. Coulomb was 
the engineer-in-chief of this part of the apparatus, but in all 
cases Madame Blavatsky w T rote the answer to the questions of 
inquirers. Here is a bright and cheerful letter, written after 
the success of an important scheme : 

" It is just post time, my dear. . . . Yes, let Srinavas Rao prostrate himself 
before the shrine, and whether he asks [anything] or not, I beg you to send 
to him this reply by Kut Humi, for he expects something. I Tcnow what he 
wants. To-morrow you shall have a long letter. Grand news ! 

"Thanks, H. P. B." 



COALS TO AN INDIAN NEWCASTLE. 



237 



Now this Srinavas Rao was a native judge, in the employ of 
the English government ; and we have the picture of a man of 
no little prominence among his fellow natives publicly lending 
himself to these creatures, and prostrating himself at their 
shrine. 

These Theosophists were very shrewd in trying to manipulate 








WEST GATE OF THE VISHNU TEMPLE, AT CONJEVERAM, NEAR MADRAS. 



the wealthy and influential. Their gospel was not to the poor. 
Here is what Madame writes about the scheme to practise upon 
the credulity of a very distinguished native : " I am told that 
Dewan Bahadur Ragunath Rao . . . wishes to place something in 
the temple. In case he should do so, here is Christofolo's an- 



238 INDIRA. 

swer. For God's sake arrange this, and we are triumphant." 
In another letter this same effusive woman writes : " You must 
read the key of the scheme to me. Do it by the underground 
way." Here is a case where she will not trust even the Colonel 
himself to look into the shrine. She must be the sole manager 
of the innermost mysteries of the grand modern Theosophy. In 
one of her letters she even calls him a " muff." In another letter 
she gets angry with everybody, and uses such profane language 
as a hardened Malay sailor would fairly shiver to employ. 

The Effect of the Exposure. 

The editor of the magazine in which these letters were pub- 
lished raised a tremendous storm. His enterprise was worthy 
of London or New York. But he astounded his readers by say- 
ing that he had made public only a very small part of what was 
in his possession, and that he was ready to give more, whenever 
he might choose. The public officials and society gentry, from 
among the natives who were named in the correspondence, were 
highly incensed. They would have brought suit in the courts, 
but this would only have rendered them ridiculous to a still 
greater degree. Dr. Hartmann, a dupe of the Theosophic pair, 
rushed into print, to show that Madame and Colonel were really 
very good people, and that they possessed a wonderful amount 
of truth. But he was, as the sequel showed, a very poor advo- 
cate. He let out what he knew concerning the stage trickery of 
the whole matter. It turned out, according to his confession, 
that the shrine had secret passages, holes in the walls, and all 
possible contrivances for carrying on a piece of gigantic and 
systematic fraud. 

To this published account of the minor deception of the The- 
osophists, I must add a fact which I derived from an honored 
missionary of the Church Missionary Society, now engaged in 
work in India. He says that one of his most inquiring native 
members, hearing that Madame and Colonel were about to visit 
his city, asked him, his pastor, if he would advise against his go- 
ing to one of their seances. The pastor, believing that no harm 
would come to the man, for he was a shrewd observer, made no 
objection. The man went, and had an interview with Madame. 
All at once she started into a rhapsodical abstraction. She 
claimed that the spirits were singing and playing. " Don't you 



COALS TO AN INDIAN NEWCASTLE. 239 

hear them ?" she asked of this gentleman, whom she regarded as 
only an unsuspecting native. " Yes/' he answered, " I hear the 
music." Now the music which he heard was none other than an 
ordinary music-box, whose varying tunes happened to be quite 
familiar to the visitor's ears. This instrument was concealed in 
the folds of Madame's dress. The trick was hardly well enough 
concealed to deceive a child. In this case, it not only satisfied 
this member of the missionary's church that the travelling couple 
had nothing new to offer, but, his experience becoming finally 
known, prevented any success from their stay in that important 
city. 

The Deception Acknowledged in England. 

As to the effect of the publication of the correspondence, in 
the Christian College Magazine, on the adherents of this new pa- 
ganism, there was a falling away of some, while others cried out 
persecution. The leaders went so far as to deny the genuineness 
of the essential parts of the correspondence, but the proof was too 
positive. Mr. Gribble, the expert employed to examine the cor- 
respondence, reported that " the letters [to the Coulombs] con- 
tain scarcely any interpolations at all, and what there are are of 
harmless character." Madame declared that she would prose- 
cute the Christian College Magazine. But she did not do it. 
This failure on her part 'was most serviceable to her cause, for 
then the proof would have been furnished in the courts that she 
wrote every word of what had been made public* 

But while the legal results were not reached, the same moral 
end was gained — one which resulted in the total failure of the 
whole movement in India. The adventurers appeared in Eng- 
land. Blavatsky, Olcott, Sinnett, and Company presented them- 
selves before the Societ}?" for Psychical Research in London. This 
society is presided over by Professor Balfour Stewart, F.R.S., and 
it determined to sift the affair to the very bottom. The rep- 
resentations of the appellants were duly recorded and printed. 
The society then sent out to India an expert, Mr. Richard Hodg- 
son, B.A., " who investigated the phenomena. He found that 
all were explainable by such tricks as sliding panels in doors, 
trap-doors in ceilings, and other forms of deception, and pre- 

* The Pioneer, Bombay, January 28, 1885. 



240 INDIRA. 

sented his report to the society, which plainly showed the would- 
be reformers were simply impostors." * 

Mr. Hodgson, after having examined many witnesses, re- 
turned to England, and the committee of the Psychical Society 
made the following report : 

" 1. That of the letters put forth by Madame Coulomb, all those, at least, 
which the committee have had the opportunity of themselves examining, and 
of submitting to the judgment of experts, are undoubtedly written by Madame 
Blavatsky ; and suffice to prove that she has been engaged in a long-continued 
combination witli other persons to produce by ordinary means a series of ap- 
parent marvels for the support of the Theosophic movement. 

" 2. That, in particular, the shrine of Adyar, through which letters purport- 
ing to come from Mahatmas were received, was elaborately arranged with the 
view to the secret insertion of letters and other objects, through a sliding panel 
at the back, and regularly used for this purpose by Madame Blavatsky or her 
agents. 

" 3. That there is consequently a very strong general presumption that all 
the marvellous narratives put forward as evidence of the existence and occult 
power of the Mahatmas are to be explained as clue, either (a) to deliberate de- 
ceptions carried out by or at the instigation of Madame Blavatsky, or (b) to 
spontaneous illusion, or hallucination, or unconscious misrepresentation, or in- 
vention on the part of the witnesses. 

" 4. That after examining Mr. Hodgson's report of the results of his personal 
inquiries, they are of opinion that the testimony to these marvels is in no case 
sufficient, taking amount and character together, to resist the force of the gen- 
eral presumption above mentioned. Accordingly they think it would be a 
waste of time to prolong the investigation." 

Of Madame Blavatsky the committee thus speak : 

" It forms no part of our duty to follow Madame Blavatsky into other fields. 
But with reference to the somewhat varied lines of activity which Mr. Hodg- 
son's report suggests for her, we may say that we cannot consider any of these 
as beyond the range of her powers. The homage which her immediate friends 
have paid to her abilities has been, for the most part, of an unconscious kind; 
and some of them may still be unwilling to credit her with mental resources 
which they have hitherto been so far from suspecting. For our own part, we 
regard her neither as a mouthpiece of hidden seers, nor as a mere vulgar ad- 
venturess ; we think that she has achieved a title to permanent remembrance 
as one of the most accomplished, ingenious, and interesting impostors in history." 

Colonel Olcott is thus described by Mr. Hodgson : 

" The testimony of Colonel Olcott himself I found to be so fundamentally at 
variance with fact in many important points that it became impossible for me 

* Badley, article " The Rise and Fall ol Theosophy in India." 



COALS TO AN INDIAN NEWCASTLE. 241 

to place the slightest value upon the evidence he had offered. But in saying 
this I do not mean to suggest any doubt as to Colonel Olcott's honesty of pur- 
pose. In short, my lengthy examinations of the numerous array of witnesses 
to the phenomena showed that they were, as a body, excessively credulous, 
excessively deficient in the powers of common observation, and too many of 
them prone to supplement that deficiency by culpable exaggeration. 

" It would in truth be impossible to reproduce all the palterings and equivo- 
cations in the evidence offered to me, or to describe, with any approach to ad- 
equacy j how my personal impressions of many of the witnesses deepened my 
conviction of the dishonesty woven throughout their testimony." 

The Society for Psychical Research received the report, and 
adopted it, and this ended the matter. It had taken great pains, 
examined witnesses in India, and reached its conclusion without 
difficulty. The result in India was what might be expected. 
The New Theosophy had been weighed and found wanting. It 
soon lost all support, and is now remembered among the dead 
substitutes for Christianity which Christendom itself transported 
to India. 

We now come to the question, "Why this new vagary in India? 
What does it mean ? I answer, that the antagonism of some 
Hindus and Brahmans to Christianity makes them ready to ac- 
cept any help against it, and causes them to make sacrifices to 
introduce any form of opposition. On the other hand, many 
have lost faith in their old religions, and do not know what to 
do. They stand on the fence, and are looking for some place of 
refuge. 

The readiness with which educated natives welcomed this 
miserable deception is the most lamentable feature of the whole 
matter. One after another was deluded. The flattering corre- 
spondence and printed documents overwhelmed them. It must 
be remembered that all India abounds in natives who claim sym- 
pathy with the new, and the newest, science. They are avowed 
Hindus or Mohammedans, but they hold that their faith should 
take on new accretions, and accommodate itself to the latest learn- 
ing. They will have nothing to do with Christianity. They are 
out at sea. They are not willing to accept Christianity, and yet 
the old faith has lost all hold on them. They see the King's 
march. They hear His voice. They tremble at His approach. 
They know the certain triumph of Christianity. But they will 
stay its march as long as possible. They will throw logs in its 
path, and, if they cannot find logs, they will cast straws in its 
16 



242 INDIRA. 

face. These people hail anything with gladness which serves 
their purpose of opposing the Christian faith. Some of them 
would muster into their service any infidel books which Chris- 
tian lands have produced, and make a great cry against the 
divisions of Christianity. Hence such men spread abroad the 
writings of Paine and Ingersoll, which have already found their 
way into several of the Indian tongues. Then, Hindu and Mo- 
hammedan opponents of Christianity never grow tired of finding 
some new force to employ against it. Therefore, when Blavat- 
sky and Olcott became known as opponents of the Christian 
faith many of the natives gave them a cordial reception. 

Monet the Probable Cause of the Esoteeic Crusade. 

Two theories have been advanced to account for the invasion 
of India by Blavatsky and Olcott. One is that Blavatsky is a 
secret Kussian agent, who has chosen this way of getting sym- 
pathy and support for a later Kussian invasion. I cannot see 
any real support for this view, though some good grounds for it 
have been presented. The most probable of all causes is, that 
money lies at the bottom of the entire matter. I have no doubt 
that the wealth of India has produced the invasion of this Ameri- 
can Theosophy, and that it was to get an easy and large liveli- 
hood that these people spent their time in India. Many of the 
natives are nobles, and roll in wealth, drawing great pensions 
from the government, their ancestors having been thus bought 
off from their thrones by England in Clive's day. Some of them 
are capable and brainy in all things but religion. It is no won- 
der that, in the general break-up of the old conditions in India, 
the gold of the Hindus should excite the itching palm of adven- 
turers, even in England. The Coulomb correspondence abounds 
in shrewd financial measures. Blavatsky, in one of her letters 
to Madame Coulomb, swears prodigiously at a certain native for 
giving her only two thousand rupees when he ought to have 
given much more. Now that is eight hundred dollars; a pretty 
neat sum for the new esoteric wisdom ! Yet she was manipulat- 
ing for a much larger amount, and so failed in her great object. 
The published correspondence shows a careful planning for larger 
lodgings, servants, and everything necessary for a great domestic 
establishment. Not only must halls be rented, but ample funds 
for wide propagation be piled up. 



COALS TO AN INDIAN NEWCASTLE. 



243 



The Missionaries not Disturbed. 

The manner in which, the missionaries of India treated this 
delusion was superb. To see Christianity at its very best one 
must visit a far-away mission field, and watch its representa- 
tives in the presence of 
a new and attractive 
enemy. They observed 
a calmness and equipoise 
which were simply mag- 
nificent. The Lucknow 
Witness and the Bom- 
bay Ouardicm came out 
in strong protests, and 
said, in substance, " Wait 
awhile ; this is a decep- 
tion ; give it time, and 
it will kill itself. We 
have no fears of the re- 
sult." So soon as the 
exposure came, all the 
Christian workers had a 
sense of relief, not that 
they had ever once doubt- 
ed the sequel, but that 
they had been embar- 
rassed by the difficulties 
which presented them- 
selves to the natives by- 
such a mysterious impo- 
sition from the civilized 
West. But when the ex- 
posure came the case was immediately reversed. The native 
mind was attracted anew to the open methods and moral purity 
of the Christian missionaries, and to the cause which they rep- 
resented. 




SURAHI (WATER-VESSEL), MODERN KASHMIR 
WARE, COPPER-TINNED. 



CHAPTER XXIY. 

CEYLON.— COLOMBO BY THE SEA. 

Of all the tropical scenes which delight the voyager in the 
Orient, nothing exceeds the beauty of the eastern coast of Cey- 
lon when seen from the steamer coming from Madras. Every 
mile of the way from Point de Galle to Colombo brings a new 
enchantment. The whole sweep of vision, from the breaking 
surf along the shining coast to the mountain-peaks, abounds in 
rich and strange scenes. Every vale and granite buttress fur- 
nish a new surprise. The Singhalese are not content to go mod- 
erately into antiquity for heroes. They begin at the beginning. 
There is a reef running all the way from India across to Ceylon, 
which lies just beneath the surface, and shuts off all important 
navigation. This is called Adam's Bridge. Not only does the 
bridge bear his name, but the fifth highest mountain is called 
Adam's Peak. But Adam's name is a frequent one in the island. 
Why not ? The general tradition is, that when Adam was driven 
out of Paradise this Singhalese paradise was his next home. 

Long before I reached Colombo (corumbic — harbor), or could 
see where it sits, like a queen on her throne, with the sea as 
her kingdom, Ceylon presented the appearance of a mountain 
in the sea. This, however, is only a sea effect. The area cov- 
ered by mountains is not over one fifth of the whole island. But 
the mountains are so abrupt and beautiful that they seem to pre- 
dominate over the level country. The island rises in towering 
masses from a zone of unsurpassed luxuriance, the brightest gem 
in the sunny Indian Ocean. Its bays, precipitous shores, tangled 
jungles, and jutting rocks make a picture of tropic splendor which 
no pen can describe. The most of the land skirting the north- 
ern third of the coast is covered with dense jungle. The south- 
western plain is far more fertile, and produces every fruit known 
to the tropics. The highest mountain is Piduru Talagala. It is 
over eight thousand feet high. But there are several other peaks, 



CEYLON.— COLOMBO BY THE SEA. 



245 



such as Kirigalpota, Totapelakanda, and Kuduhugala, which are 
of nearly equal height. These mountains, with the sea sweeping 
in upon the shore, and sending its spray high up the granite 
barriers, present a strangely beautiful picture. 




A CATAHABAN. 



_ One gets new ideas of English pluck when he gets at the an- 
tipodes and the equator. Look at this Colombo harbor. The 



246 INDIRA. 

English needed a safe place for their immense commerce ; spent 
£4,000,000 to get one ; and, to make the wild sea behave itself, 
stole five hundred of its turbulent acres. The result is the splen- 
did harbor of Colombo. 

All at once the Dacca makes a graceful curve in her course, 
and the domes and spires and bright houses of Colombo, beautiful 
queen of beautiful Ceylon, burst like an apparition upon the view. 
You are fastened to the deck. Everything is new. Nothing is 
wanted to make the picture at once unique and memorable. 

Heber's 

" Spicy breezes 
Blow soft o'er Ceylon's isle " 

are not a poetic fancy ; they are a truth which a near catching 
of a Singhalese breeze confirms. You can stand on the deck of 
your vessel to-day and take in the spicy breath from the aromatic 
shrubs along the coast. The burden of the air is a dense per- 
fume. Miss Jew'sbury, too, was right, and is still as right as forty- 
five years ago, when she touched her harpstrings and sang, 

" Ceylon ! Ceylon ! 'tis nought to me 

How thou wert known or named of old, 
As Oplnr, or Taprobane, 

By Hebrew king or Grecian bold. 

"To me thy spicy, wooded vales, 

Thy dusky sons and jewels bright, 
But image forth the far-famed tales — 
But seem a new Arabian night. 

" And where engirdled figures crave 

Heed to thy bosom's glittering store — 
I see Aladdin in his cave, 

I follow Sindbad on the shore." 

Like Sindbad, I, too, went ashore. This was no easy task. 
My hold had to be firm and my foot steady as I went down the lad- 
der of the Dacca. When once in my little boat, it bobbed about 
with fearful uncertainty. The men pulled heartily, and in due 
time I reached the shore. 

One sees the story of Ceylon in Colombo. Here are traces of 
the Portuguese conquest ; still clearer, however, of the Dutch, 
and, latest of all, of the English. Here are the stages of Cey- 
lon's ownership. Six centuries before Christianity a prince 



/ ■; 1$ i 




CEYLON.— COLOMBO BY THE SEA. 249 

from Northern India, Vija} T a by name, came hither and con- 
quered the whole island. His rule was long; and then came a 
succession of kings of Ceylon, who reigned until 1505, when the 
Portuguese sailed into Colombo, or where it now stands, and 
built a fort. Their object was half commercial and half polit- 
ical. Next came the Dutch sailors. They were traders. What 
cared the Dutchman for rule, if he could only treble his florins % 
He came to Ceylon in 1602. Those old Dutch graveyards still 
tell the romance of his stay. They remind you of the inscrip- 
tions in the God's Acres along the Passaic and the Mohawk. The 
Singhalese never took a fancy to the Portuguese ; for the latter 
meant, not trade alone, but ownership, and a change in the suc- 
cession. Hence the Singhalese welcomed the Dutch. The Por- 
tuguese were driven out, after eighteen years' warfare, by the 
Dutch and natives. This was in 1658 ; and from that year to 
1796 the Dutch predominated. 

Then came the English, who were invited in to help put an 
end to the cruelty of the Kandyan kings, the Dutch now having 
lost interest in the island, and not disturbing themselves by look- 
ing after its government. Since 1796 the English have ruled 
Ceylon. Their control has been paternal, strong, and elevating. 
With their rule there has been a constant advance in the evan- 
gelization of the people. Singularly enough, before the landing 
of the English — and for this we take Mr. Ferguson as authority 
— there was not a carriage-road in the whole island. All the 
ways were rough and sandy. But England began to build good 
ways, not only for military purposes, but for all industrial and 
commercial uses. Over these she first hauled gunpowder and 
then the Bible. It is a singular fact that the stage on the road 
from Colombo to Kandy, the ancient capital of the island, which 
began to run on February 1, 1832, was the first mail-coach in 
the whole continent of Asia. 

My first walk was along the shore. Here I found a magnifi- 
cent road, as hard as granite, and raised quite out of the reach of 
Neptune's spray. The material is laterite, or decomposed gneiss, 
of a dull red color. The road is broad and beautiful, with the sea 
to the right and the city to the left. I had but little disposition 
to examine the city, such was the fascination of this wonderful 
promenade. Here the people come out in the evenings, and walk 
up and down the enchanting place, and forget the cares of the 
16 — 2 



250 INDIKA. 

day. The sea-breeze never rests, and the sea itself presents a 
variety which makes the picture always new and welcome. The 
Museum is far out in the suburbs. You leave the buildings of 
the city, and reach the suburban homes, with the great com- 
pounds and courts, and then enter the public gardens. After a 
few curves in the road, I reached the Museum. One expects, as 
a matter of course, to find many marine curiosities and monstros- 
ities ; but I had seen enough of them elsewhere in India to satisfy 
my taste for natural history. Every hour you spend indoors 
when in Ceylon is a punishment. You want no house. You 
revel in the broad expanse of Nature and her thousand per- 
fumes. Even a stroll through the Museum of Colombo was a 
necessity rather than a pleasure. Its antiquities are its chief 
treasure. For a continuous history of a great length Ceylon is 
equal to the Koman empire. One can read it, as it winds along 
from century to century, without finding any hiatus. It is pos- 
itively monotonous to go over one hundred and seventy Sing- 
halese kings and as many queens and not misplace one. In the 
Museum there are magnificent stones, with earlier inscriptions, 
which date back into the centuries when the world was young, 
and could write its letters and chip its stones only rudely. The 
Buddhistic memorials are grotesque enough, and, best of all, 
they are authentic. It must not be forgotten, that of all places 
under the sun Ceylon is the best in which to study this Bud- 
dhistic system. Buddha, driven out of India, and thrice con- 
quered and stamped into the very dust, took sweet revenge by 
halting here in Ceylon. Here is where the system has been 
studied, and with a fiery analysis. Its emptiness has been found 
out in its very home. Spence Hardy, the Wesleyan missionary, 
has turned it inside out, and made it reveal its inherent wicked- 
ness, and has told the world its story in his three works, the best 
of all being his " Eastern Monachism." 

But it is no wonder the Wesleyans have loved Ceylon as a 
mission field, and bearded the Buddhistic lion in his very den. 
Yonder, in the offing, the grand Coke, with enough fire in his 
brave heart to set all India ablaze, gave up his spirit, and the 
Indian Ocean still sings his requiem. The Wesleyans have 
always kept his burial-place upon their sailing-charts. Faith 
always keeps up with its dead. 



CEYLON.— COLOMBO BY THE SEA. 



253 



Visit to the Exiled Aeabi Pasha. 

After leaving the Museum I went to see Arabi Pasha. It was 
he who led the native Egyptian troops, a few years ago, against 
the English. He did not lose his head when taken prisoner, but, 
instead, was sent an exile to Ceylon. " Take nothing for grant- 







ALONG THE SHORE, CEYLON. 



ed " is a good motto for the traveller. On our way to his house 
we were met by a party of English ladies and gentlemen, who 
said to the Eev. Mr. Pox and myself, " It's no use. You can't 
see him. He is asleep." We thanked them, but drove on. In 
twenty minutes we were sitting in his veranda, beneath his palms, 



254 INDIRA. 

fanning ourselves in mid-December. We had a pleasant recep- 
tion from Arabi's son, who bade us wait only a few minutes, 
when his father would receive us. 

The son has an indescribably sad face. He is tall, has lost an 
eye by the universal Egyptian opthalmia, and in his manner and 
expression seems to say, " I am an exile's son ; but I will stay 
with my father." Arabi, the father, has a tall and muscular 
body, and inclines to corpulence. His eye is far-seeing, and in- 
clines to look downward, as if to rest. He talks with hesitation 
about his campaigns, and would rather pass over them altogether, 
but is quick to discuss the future. His heart is with his native 
Egypt. He wants the country to rule itself. Can this be the 
man who burned Alexandria, who caused assassination to run 
wild both there and elsewhere, and who came near conquering 
the English army? So far as appearances go, he is the man. 
But the safer solution is, that he was obeying the sultan's orders 
— that he had received hints from Constantinople, and that he 
was following them to the letter. If not, then why did the sul- 
tan prevent him from being put to death, and ask the English 
to make only an exile of him ? This is one step. The next will 
be his return to Egypt at the same sultan's wish. Then we shall 
hear again Arabi's cry, "Egypt for the Egyptians." He is ready 
again for fight, and thinks of the hour when his exile will end. 




WILD HOG OF INDIA. 



CHAPTEE XXY. 

THE ENCHANTED ROAD TO KANDY. 

Think of a railroad amid the tangled and varied wonders of 
Ceylon. Yet here is one from Colombo on the sea to the an- 
cient capital, Kandy. For the first fifteen miles the road is 
nearly level. But then it begins to climb. Soon you are far 
above the sea and the housetops of beautiful Colombo. The 
steady climb continues more than three hours. The view be- 
comes more entrancing every minute. When Mrs. Browning 
had her dream of her sweet distant island, did not Ceylon float 
before her vision ? — 

" Hills running up to heaven for light 
Through woods that half-way ran! 
As if the wild earth mimicked right 
The wilder heart of man." 

The scenery grows wilder, of deeper tints, and more richly 
tropical. The surprises intoxicate and bewilder. Great boul- 
ders lie out on either hand, and hills, which grow into moun- 
tains, can be counted by the score. But boulders and hills and 
mountains are all different in Ceylon from those of any other 
land. The wealth of vegetation, which becomes a drapery to all 
things, gives an entirely new character to every rock, whether 
standing alone or combined with a mountain-chain. Here, for 
example, is a great jagged rock, a hundred feet in diameter, 
scarred and gashed by the storms and shocks of ages. But the 
vines have thrust themselves into its deep lines and climbed over 
its rugged points, and fairly smothered every angle with their 
delicate and dallying fingers, so that one would think the hard 
rock was only placed there as a support for a tropical vine. 

But this is not all. Shrubs have found their way into the 
crevices, and pushed their roots deeply down, and now their 
broad and ample branches flash out over the mossy shoulders 
as rich scarlet and yellow blossoms as ever borrowed color from 



256 INDIKA. 

the sun near the equator. Even the palms seem to take special 
pleasure in getting close to the rocks, then flinging their great 
fronds right out over the gray granite, as much as to say : " How 
dare you take up so much space % Make way, or I will cover 
every inch of your impudent face with my big leaves, and drive 
you into perpetual oblivion." 

The Singhalese Palms. 

The palms along this wonderful road are the very kings of 
trees. They are the chief feature, next to the mountains them- 
selves, of the unparalleled landscape. They have the same 
general trunk — long, graceful, slender — but, like men, exhibit 
amazing differences when one comes to examine them minutely. 
The fronds always tell the story of individuality. You see the 
talipot palm, the areca palm, the sago palm, the cocoanut palm, 
the toddy palm, and I know not how many others. Each has 
its. large class of uses, and there is hardly any limit to its appli- 
cations. 

The palms abound everywhere along this enchanted road to 
Kandy. They run along both sides of the road. They climb 
well up the mountain-sides, and run down into all the valleys. 
No doorway seems complete without one, to throw down its 
welcome shade upon all who enter it. No home is too stately 
or too poor to be without it. It is the cosmopolitan fruit of 
beautiful Ceylon. It hugs closely the railway track, grows in 
plenty far away from any house, bends over the thatched roof 
of the farmer, as if for protection, lets the gray cattle come and 
lean against it ; and now and then, when still young, drops its 
fronds so low down that a child can play with them and swing 
by them. In some instances they form a vista, and as you drive 
under them, as we did in one case, they are found to have thrown 
out their branches to meet one another, and to have interlaced, 
and to have made so thick a shield that only an occasional fleck 
of sunshine could be seen on the red and perfect road. 

Coffee and Tea. 

No one can number the whole catalogue of plants and trees 
which we pass on this single ride of seventy miles from Co- 
lombo to Kandy. Up on the hillsides the cinchona-tree abounds, 
and is now an important branch of culture, but only on Euro- 



THE ENCHANTED ROAD TO KANDT. 259 

pean estates. The Singhalese seldom try any product of the 
tropics without succeeding in their undertaking. The coffee-tree 
has, almost alone of their sources of revenue, failed them to some 
extent of late. A fungus, or leaf disease, has appeared, and so 
injured the harvest that, within the last few years, there has 
been immense loss to the coffee-planters. This disease of the 
coffee-plant in Ceylon, in connection with similar losses to the 
sugar-planters of the Mauritius, led to the suspension of the 
Oriental Bank Corporation a few years since. • . 

Several substitutes for the coffee-plant in use in Ceylon have 
been attempted. One of these is the Liberian coffee, introduced 
from Western Africa. It has been only partially successful ; but 
there is hope that in time it will make some amends for the fail- 
ure of the Singhalese coffee-tree. Now the cinchona-tree is one 
of the substitutes for the coffee. Large tracts of land are planted 
with it, and many great hillsides are covered with it. In the 
distance, the cinchona orchard has the appearance of a lemon 
or orange grove. There is the same deep green, and the trees 
stand about the same distance apart. The main difference is 
that the cinchona appears to be a smaller tree. 

Tea-gardens abound. The tea-plant is becoming the general 
substitute for coffee, and is destined to become far more widely 
cultivated, as it thrives at a much greater range of elevation. 
The cinchona is chiefly successful as a supplementary crop on 
coffee or tea plantations. 

Rice. 

But the favorite plant is rice. When it is growing, it is always 
called " paddy." Buckle says that caste, oppression, and high 
rents come from eating rice. In reply, it may be said that 
the native sons of Ceylon and India indicate no less fond- 
ness for rice after having renounced paganism than before 
adopting the Christian religion. Of Indian rice — and we may 
assume the same of that of Ceylon — Hunter reports that 
two hundred and ninety -five different kinds are known to 
the peasant.* The Singhalese have solved one problem, 
how to make their rice climb mountains and come down on 
the other side. But then the mountains must not be over 

* " Statistical Account of Bengal," vol. vii., pp. 234, 237. 



260 INDIRA. 

four thousand feet high, for the rice cannot thrive at a greater 
altitude. 

Rice must always have abundance of water. The seed must 
soak in the wet earth, and the green spires must shoot up through 
the shallow pools. Ceylon has its lakes and rivers, and it is easy 
enough so to divert their waters from the very top of its moun- 
tains that they can be made to irrigate any spot on the whole 
island, however high the patch of land. Now there is no such 
thing as irrigating a mountain-side in any other way than by 
terraces. The land must be flat in order that the water may 
lie an equal depth everywhere. Hence, the entire side of the 
mountain is a succession of beautiful terraces. The water comes 
into the top section or terraced lot, and from that it descends 
by channels and by an outlet into the one below, and thence 
into the lower, until the scores and hundreds of beautiful ter- 
races are supplied with water enough to make the rice fairly 
bound into beauty and a bountiful harvest. These terraced 
fields are not prepared loosely or irregularly. It would seem 
that great care is taken to arrange the terraces that the effect 
might be pleasing to the eye. But, on inquiry, I learned that 
the Singhalese and the Tamils have little or no sense of beauty, 
and that the beauty of their landscape is largely due to the 
economy of space, labor, and water, and, above all, to the won- 
derful powers of nature. 

If a hillside of one hundred acres is to be put in rice, the most 
careful plan is made to divide it into terraces, and to arrange 
them in relation to each other. The result is, that when the 
work is over, and the sowing is done, and the rice is out in its 
emerald dress, you find yourself gazing upon as beautiful a piece 
of agricultural art as your eyes ever saw. 

Then, suppose you are looking at twenty of these hillsides at 
once, dropping down towards the plain at different angles, and 
of all possible shapes and sizes, and every one covered with rice 
terraces. The borders are resplendent with a growth of green 
grasses, and cheerful streams sing their way outward and sea- 
ward in a thousand directions, while great palms and wild 
vines interrupt the scene, and form the border lines in this 
picture of enchanting beauty. The wonderful luxuriance of 
the heart of this strange Ceylon is a perpetual surprise. 
You wonder how trees can grow into such gigantic shapes, 



THE ENCHANTED ROAD TO KANDT. 



261 



and how each growth can produce so many flowers and so much 
fruit. 




THE GREAT BANYAN-TREE, ON THE ROAD PROM COLOMBO TO MOUNT LAVINIA 

HOTEL. 

Wildness or Nature. 

But we are still climbing this wonderful hill. At no moment, 
however, is there any release from the sweet bondage of this 
17* 



262 INDIRA. 

perfumed and dazzling scene. You are fairly overwhelmed with 
every new mile in your upward road. Each moment there is 
something new and strangely fascinating. Rich as the vegeta- 
tion is in Southern India, and especially on the plains about 
Madras, and on the fertile table-lands of Mysore, there is not an 
acre in all India which compares with Ceylon in productiveness 
and a certain lawlessness of color and vegetation. One sees so 
much which he never thought of seeing, that he becomes surfeited 
with the prospect. It is like looking at too many Guido-Renis 
in the same gallery. 

I was thoroughly tired by the time I reached Kandy — not 
because of the journey itself, but because of Nature's extrav- 
agant display of plants and flowers and fruits. My eyes 
and sensations were overtaxed. Then, where there is neither 
flower nor fruit, Nature seems to take a special delight in 
winding wild vines in all possible directions, in making them 
spring to every branch and rock, and get ready for a loftier 
leap. Many of these vines, when they had exhausted all the 
supports they could find, just jumped out desperately into 
the air; and there they hung and waved and nodded their 
smiles down upon us, as much as to say : " Just give us more 
trellis, and we w r ill wander out on larger paths into this 
Elysian air." 

We have now reached the Kandy station. Here are tall peo- 
ple, the giants of this isle of dreams and history. Neither Dutch 
nor French nor English ever conquered them. Their spears have 
been very weavers' beams. The English would not be here to- 
day, with their good rule and even justice, but for the cruelty 
of the native king, whom the wise native chiefs asked English 
help to rid them of. The English were waiting. They are he- 
roes of an opportunity. Here they stayed, and are now as firm 
here as the granite sides of the isle itself. A handy, or little 
carriage, is waiting for us, to drive us to the Queen's Hotel. 
Things are reversed here. You see the opposite of what you 
wait to see. The women do not wear combs, but the men do. 
So our driver, a pleasing native, has long hair, twisted into a 
firm knot on the top of his head, and held by an artistic comb 
of tortoise-shell. The wearing of combs by the Singhalese men 
is said to have been introduced bj the Dutch ladies, in the 
time of the dominion of Holland, who insisted that if their 



THE ENCHANTED ROAD TO KANDT. 



263 



household servants would wear long hair, they should also wear 
combs. 

Our driver of the large comb helps us to our seats, and soon 
we are whirling past the trim houses and beneath the long arms 
of the welcoming palms of this old, old Singhalese capital. 




SINGHALESE WAITEK 



CHAPTEE XXYI. 

KANDY AND ITS WONDERS. 

The impression one forms of Ceylon from his view of Colom- 
bo undergoes a thorough revolution when he gets to Kandy, 
the ancient capital. Colombo is the busy and commercial sea- 
port which monopolizes nearly all the trade of Ceylon. It is a 
thriving place, and takes on a European coloring as rapidly as if 
it were within gunshot of Liverpool. It is the stopping-place for 
vessels around the Bay of Bengal, the Chinese and Siamese ports, 
Japan, and Australia ; and then, again, on their return westward, 
for all the ports which are entered by means of the Suez Canal. 
From the harbor of Colombo there go, probably, more products 
for the acre into the great world than are grown under any other 
sky. From any seed you let fall in Ceylon you may expect that 
your plant will grow higher, become more fragrant, have a deeper 
color, and be more prolific when the reaping comes than any you 
have ever let fall elsewhere. Kandy is seventeen hundred feet 
higher than Colombo, and lies back in the silences of Ceylon, where 
life moves more slowly, and the native spirit has no sympathy 
with the nineteenth century. 

In Kandy, whether one will or not, the mind will go back to 
the Lake region in England. You find a calm and quiet beauty, 
a freedom from strain and stress, a cluster of hillsides which 
throw down their beautiful face into the mirroring lake at their 
feet, a sweetness in all the pulsations of the air, and a univer- 
sal friendliness between all Nature and its lord, which bring 
up Grassmere, Windermere, Derwentwater, and their spirits — 
Southey, Wordsworth, Coleridge, and all the rest of the Cum- 
berland immortals. Even the hostelry of Kandy, the Queen's 
Hotel, suggested to me immediately the Keswick inn. The 
whole reminder was pleasant enough at first. But too much of 
such resemblances is not good. You can less easily resign your- 
self to the novelty of your new environment. You lose the new 
by recalling too intensely the old. 



KANDY AND ITS WONDERS. 



265 



The story of Kandy is the history of Ceylon.* It is Asia in 
miniature. Ptolemy and Pliny mention it, and call it Anuro- 




THE GIANT BAMBOOS IN THE PERADINIA GARDENS, NEAR KANDY. 

grammum. But it then disappeared entirely from history, and 
™!L^fj^ century, during 

Bw!i? nen V B i the ^ authorit y foT the history^d _ ^o^^"Vc^o7 
V or all practical purposes, Ferguson, « Directory of Ceylon," is ample. 



266 INDIKA. 

the reign of Prakrama Bahu III. It was he who embellished 
Kandy, surrounded it with all the sanctities of the Buddhist 
faith, and erected a temple to the Sacred Tooth of Buddha. 
The possession of this relic, spurious as it is, together with the 
countless jewels which are stored away in the many shrines 
about the great and smaller temples, has made Kandy the Can- 
terbury of the whole Buddhist world. With the year 1505, 
when the Portuguese first landed in Ceylon, Kandy became a 
coveted prize for the ambitious schemes of every European na- 
tion which aimed at Asiatic conquests. The Portuguese, not sat- 
isfied with enriching themselves with the trade of Ceylon, resolved 
on planting Roman Catholicism firmly throughout the island. 
The Jesuitism which became rooted in Bassein, Goa, and other 
places along the western coast of India struck directly for the 
heart of Ceylon. It failed in every case, but kept up a warfare 
which lasted a century. In 1602 the Dutch traders came ; and, 
as they proposed to attend strictly to business, the Kandyan 
king, Kunappu Baudara, gave them a cordial welcome. The 
Dutch united with the Kandyans in repelling the Portuguese. 
In 1672 the French came, and the Dutch assisted their good 
friends, the same Kandyans, to repel them. So M. de la Haye, 
having been beaten in his attack on the Point de Galle, was glad 
to find his way from the Isle of Spices at any cost. Last of all 
came the English, in 1763, who began to manage most wisely 
for the possession of the island. The Dutch evacuation of 
Kandy took place in 1796, and in 1798 England sent her first 
governor, Lord North, afterwards the Earl of Guilford, who 
took formal possession. Ever since then the Union Jack has 
floated over the whole island. 

Ceylon is not connected with the Indian government. It is 
ruled directly from London, and is the first of the crown colonies 
under the Secretary of State. It has a local governor of its own. 
With him are associated a legislature and an executive council. 
The legislative council is composed of official and unofficial 
members, the former being government officers, the latter the 
representatives of the different populations of the island, ap- 
pointed by the governor from candidates nominated by their 
respective constituencies. The official members are in a decided 
majority, and are bound to vote at the dictation of the governor 
whenever he may so require. The government is, therefore, 



KANDT AND ITS WONDERS. 267 

autocratic, and the unofficial members can only express the 
voice of the people by moral pressure on the government. 

Kandy, though many times attacked, has never been con- 
quered. The real Kandy an is a mountaineer. He lives from 
two to five thousand feet above the sea, loves his hills with an 
idolatry equal to his veneration of Buddha, has all the robust- 
ness of the Scotchman, is tall and well-knit, and, as history well 
proves, is a master in using his mountains as a safe defence. In 
no part of Asia have I seen such fine specimens of well-formed 
men among the natives. They might safely be taken by any An- 
gelo as models for sculpture of the human form. 




TEA-PICKERS IN CEYLON. 



Just a few rods from the Queen's Hotel you step up to the 
broad and beautiful walk which surrounds the celebrated Lake 
Maha, or Lake the Great. This wonderful sheet of water is the 
heart of Nuwara, or the Great City, as the Singhalese love to call 
their beautiful Kandy. It was the work of an early rajah, and 
is as beautiful as the crystal image of Buddha off yonder in one 
of the shrines. It is bordered by a low parapet of stone, indented 
like a castle wall, and has a beautiful islet in the centre, from 



268 INDIRA. 

whose trees the vines and branches hang down into the lake 
itself. No boats ply upon the lake, and no one is allowed to 
fish in it. It is simply a crystal setting in the centre of the 
charming city, where people may walk at will, by day and night, 
along its gravelled margin. 

I shall not soon forget my night ramble along this enchanted 
body of water. The moon never shone more brightly. It was 
in the full, and almost eclipsed the brightest stars. It lighted 
up the farther hillside, and threw down into the lake the shad- 
ows of the villas that climb up to the very top of the mountain. 
The Temple of the Sacred Tooth was lighted up, there being 
service that evening, and one could see, reflected in the lake, 
the entire outline of the strange building, the lights from many 
a window and archway, and the coming and going worshippers. 
Once again, after returning to my lodgings, I went back to the 
esplanade surrounding this matchless sheet of water, and walked 
up and down, in every direction, almost asking myself whether 
this was dream or reality. The air was laden with fragrance. 
There was no ceasing of these delicious pulsations of the air at 
nightfall. And yet they are not to be defined. The perfume 
of roses fairly filled the whole place ; but there were so many 
other flowers, of equal perfume, which competed for the sway, 
that one could not tell which predominated. 

The Temple of the Sacred Tooth of Buddha shows how far 
idolatry can go when it once sets out on its absurdities. Nature 
has nothing to do with suppressing superstition or destroying 
faith in grim images in wood and stone. The fairest sky and 
most beautiful scenery beneath it say nothing against even so 
gross a corruption as a great temple to even the spurious tooth 
of a spurious god. The temple and the many dependent build- 
ing's about it are at the farther end of the lake. One can de- 
scend the sacred steps and walk down the stone way to the wa- 
ter's brink. There they stand, the Sacred Tooth Temple in the 
midst, and the rest only as accessories to it. Happy the Buddhist 
who can once look upon that pyramid which he calls his most 
sacred temple. Wherever he lives, far up under the shadow of 
the Himalayas or across in Burma, it is all the same. This tem- 
ple is his Paradise. The Buddhist kings of all lands send costly 
presents to it, as they have been doing for ages ; and these many 
shrines are very jewel-boxes, which the wealthy, the strong, and 



KAN DT AND ITS WONDERS. 



269 




COFFEE-PLANT AND BLOSSOMS. 



the beautiful, from great distances, have overburdened with their 
most precious stores. All the things which the Buddhist regards 
as most sacred cluster here. 



The Buddhist Library. 

There is an octagonal building, which hangs near the temple 
front, on the bank of the lake, as a bird's nest against a tree. 
This is the Library. Can there be anything like it in all the 
world % It contains two thousand precious manuscripts, on olas, 
or prepared leaves of the talipot palm. Paganism, with all its 
ignorance, professes to be built on books. There is nothing a 



270 INDIKA. 

Buddhist thinks more of than his records. They confirm him, 
however weak they are, in his wildest faith. These manuscripts 
are in long leaves, and slide along up and down two connecting 
strings. The outer parts of each manuscript are protected by 
cases, some of which are of richest workmanship. Here is one 
of ivory, whose fine miniatures must have taken a lifetime to 
make. Another is of solid silver, with reliefs which would add 
to the fame of a Benvenuto Cellini. Here is another, with a, 
gold intaglio on a background of silver. Still another is of 
some fragrant wood, which defies all time to destroy its per- 
fume. It is literally covered with gold arabesques, fixed so 
firmly that one would think the gold had been burned into the 
very fibre of the wood. 

The finest manuscript and case I saw were from Burma. The 
ground-color is a rich and soft yellow tint. On this the letters 
are inscribed in gold and black, each leaf, or palm-sheet, being 
in itself a triumph of art. The characters are in Burmese. But 
there are manuscripts in other languages — Tamil, Pali, Singha- 
lese, Telugu, and all the others that have for centuries been beat- 
ing about the walls of this Asiatic Babel. 

Strange to say, there is one alcove in this unique collection 
entirely devoted to English works on Ceylon. But one finds 
nothing among them which strikes at the pagan root. Look as 
carefully as you may, for example, you will see no trace of Spence 
Hardy's " Eastern Monachism." I have the good authority of 
Mr. Ferguson, the publicist of Colombo, for saying that no book 
approaches it as a reliable source for the understanding of Bud- 
dhism. 

Temple op Buddha's Tooth. 

I visited the Temple of the Tooth at the time of the evening 
service, half-past six. "Worshippers were crowding in. Each 
went first to a fountain within the temple wall, where he poured 
water on his feet and hands, and then bought flowers from vend- 
ors who stood near by with baskets laden with them. These 
flowers are, first, the rich and fragrant champac, or frangipani, 
the flower of the temple-tree, and, second, the blossom of the 
iron wood, or na-tree. They are all white, with a slight dash of 
pink. Their perfume fills all the sacred spaces. The air hangs 
heavy, and surfeits one with the combined fragrance. On ad- 



KANDY AND ITS WONDERS. 



271 



vancing to the outer court, whose entrance is guarded by two 
broad pillars, I ascended the temple steps, and reached an outer 
veranda. Here I saw a series of rude frescoes on either side, de- 
scriptive of the torments of the Buddhist hell. Of the hopelessly 
lost, by far the larger part were women. You then come to the 
veranda which immediately surrounds the great temple itself. 
To the left is a small shrine, where there are several images of 







ENTRANCE TO BUDDHIST TEMPLE, KANDY. 



Buddha, the chief of which is the one made of a single block of 
crystal. The cabinet enclosing it consists of combined silver and 
ivory, curiously wrought, and in a style well worthy of the early 
Italian workers. To enter the main temple, where the sacred 
tooth is, you have to pass two pairs of huge elephant-tusks, which 
serve as portarii on either side of the steps by which the wor- 



272 INDIKA. 

shipper ascends the stairway to the awful sanctuary. You now 
go through a doorway, the whole frame of which consists of 
three parts, a smaller frame, then a larger one outside of it, and 
the largest outside of that. One is of ivory, minutely wrought, 
and evidently very okl, having grown very dark by age. An- 
other is of solid silver, covered with a sheathing of gold. By 
this last doorway you enter the dark and mj^sterious sanctum 
sanctorum of the whole Buddhist faith. There is first a silver 
table, which stands before the shrine, and awaits the worship- 
per's gifts. You look through iron bars, and behold a gilded 
shrine, shaped like a bell. This is a mere covering for six other 
shrines, of decreasing size, one within the other. All are of solid 
gold, with rubies, pearls, emeralds, and other precious stones. 
Here are Oriental cat's-eyes incrusted into gold and silver. The 
two smallest of these shrines are covered with squarely cut ru- 
bies. 

The sacred tooth, invisible in these days, is contained in the 
smallest of all. Burrows, the best living authority on this relic, 
saw it, and says of it : " It is an oblong piece of discolored ivory, 
tapering to a point, and about one and one fourth inches in length, 
and half an inch in diameter at the base. It is not the least like 
a human tooth, and more resembles that of a crocodile or large 
pig." Inside the large shrine there is also kept a large collec- 
tion of jewels, the most of them once the property of the early 
nobility and rajahs of Kandy. One of the most precious relics, 
always excepting the bogus tooth, is a sitting figure of Buddha, 
carved out of a single emerald. But great precious stones and 
pearls of fabulous size are the order here. Their very splendor 
becomes distressing. One is glad to get out and stroll along the 
beautiful lake, and see in its deep bosom the shadows of God's 
patient stars. 




TOOTH OF BUDDHA, AT KANDY. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

THE PEARL FISHERY.— MADURA AND ITS TEMPLE. 

On leaving Ceylon for the mainland, I took steamer for Tuti- 
korin, a town of ten thousand inhabitants. This place was long 
celebrated for its pearl fishery. 

Caesar Frederick visited India in 1563-1581, and tells us that 
the fishing began in March or April, and lasted fifty days. " Dur- 
ing the continuance of the fishing," he says, " there are always 
three or four armed foists or galliots stationed to defend the 
fishermen from pirates. Usually the fishing-boats unite in com- 
panies of three or four. These boats resemble our pilot boats at 
Venice, but are somewhat smaller, having seven or eight men each. 
I have seen of a morning a great number of these boats go out to 
fish, anchoring in fifteen or eighteen fathoms water, which is the 
ordinary depth along this coast. "When at anchor they cast a 
rope into the sea, having a great stone at one end. Then a 
man, having his ears well stopped, and his body anointed with 
oil, and a basket hanging to his neck or under his left arm, goes 
down to the bottom of the sea along the rope, and fills the bas- 
ket with oysters as fast as he can. When it is full he shakes 
the rope, and his companions draw him up with the basket. The 
divers follow each other in succession in this manner, till the 
boat is loaded with oysters, and they return at evening to the 
fishing village. Then each boat or company makes their heap 
of oysters at some distance from each other, so that a long row 
of great heaps of oysters is seen piled along the shore. These 
are not touched till the fishing is over, when each company sits 
down beside its own heap, and falls to opening the oysters, 
which is now easy, as the fish within are all dead and dry. If 
every oyster had pearls in it, it would be a profitable occupation, 
but there are many which have none. There are certain persons 
called Chitini who are learned in pearls, and are employed to 
sort and value them according to their weight, beauty, and good- 
18 



274 INJDIKA. 

ness, dividing them into four sorts. The first, which are round, 
are named Aia of Portugal, as they are bought by the Portu- 
guese. The second, which are not round, are named Aia of 
Bengal. The third, which are inferior to the second, are called 
Aia of Kanara, which is the name of the kingdom of Bijanagar, 
or Narsinga, into which they are sold. And the fourth, or low- 
est kind, are called Aia of Cambaia, being sold into that coun- 
try. Thus sorted and a price affixed to each, there are mer- 
chants from all countries ready with their money, so that in a 
few days all the pearls are > bought up, according to their good- 
ness and weight." * 

The pearl fishing of Tutikorin has now passed away, because 
the oysters, except of an inferior kind, no longer grow along the 
coast. Pearl oysters still grow on the Singhalese coast, but if a 
tourist wishes to buy pearls, and be sure of what he is getting, 
he should not select Colombo, but some place in Europe or the 
United States, for his purchases. 

Tutikorin was my nearest point for finding a railroad and 
taking a train for a visit to some of the most ancient and cele- 
bratecl Indian temples. 

The Nerbudda was about to sail for Tutikorin, and I took 
passage by her from Colombo in the afternoon. The sea was 
high, and we were in the region of sunken reefs and many a 
shipwreck. People avoid this route, so far as they can, but this 
was my only opportunity to visit the region south of Madras. 
On the day following the departure from Colombo we came in 
sight of the Indian coast. Off in the distance there lay the 
wreck of a magnificent steamer. She had run on a hidden reef 
some months before, and was now forsaken, and would in time 
disappear beneath the waves of this treacherous sea. 

" How shall we land V 

" Oh," replied the captain, " we shall not venture much far- 
ther in. We shall soon cast anchor, and the little launch will 
come out and take you all ashore." 

This was no pleasant news. I had never seen, in all the East, 
a launch that I would be willing to trust myself to in such a 
heavy sea and at such a distance from the shore. We dropped 
anchor eight miles from the coast. By and by we saw a little 

*Kerr, " Voyages and Tramps," vol. viii. 



THE PEARL FISHERY.— MADURA AND ITS TEMPLE. 275 

bobbing speck — the launch in question — emerging from a tongue 
of land beyond which Tutikorin lay along the coast. It was 
coming out for us. As it came clearly into view I could see its 
tossings more clearly. By and by the dwarf came up to our 
side, and was fastened to the Nerbudda. We had many passen- 
gers, mostly natives, who were scattered over our deck in hetero- 
geneous masses. They, too, wanted to land, and meant to take 
the launch as well as ourselves. The officers had little control 
over them. They dropped down rapidly into the launch, and 
seemed to me to fill every part of the frail craft. I must either 
follow them or depart with the steamer in a different direction, 
and thus spoil all my plans. 

I took the risk, and went down the rickety stepway into the 
launch. We were soon cast loose, and bobbing and rolling up 
and down in the wild waters. We passed near the great wreck, 
and moved on towards the land. Those were eight venturesome 
miles. There was' no room for a comfortable seat, and I there- 
fore had to stand and hang on by any support within reach. By 
and by we came within the lee of the land, and the water grew 
smooth. In due time we landed. The question now was, when 
was the train to leave — the only one in twenty-four hours ? 

" Immediately," said the captain of the diminutive launch. I 
was one of the first to step ashore. Two hulls caught up my 
luggage, and hastened towards the railway station. But I had 
the disappointment of seeing the train move out just as I reached 
the station. I was too late. Therefore I had to adjust myself 
to a halt of twenty-four hours. I found a humble hotel, where 
I took a bath, and made myself as comfortable as the circum- 
stances would admit. In the afternoon I strolled through the 
bazar, and visited one of the Jesuit churches — one of the many 
planted, either directly or indirectly, through the labors of Xavier 
around this coast. 

When I was buying my ticket the next morning for Madura, 
the station agent was kind enough to say : 

"Don't you know there is cholera in Madura?" 

" What, real Asiatic cholera ?" 

" It's real Asiatic cholera, and nothing else," he answered. 

" I have not heard it before," I replied. " I landed only yes- 
terday from the steamer Nerbudda, and have had no news. of 
any kind. Many deaths V 



276 INDIRA. 

" Oh, no. Nothing compared with last year. Five thousand 
died during the season. Only about ten die a day just now, and 
we don't consider that anything." 

I mused a moment on the mortality of ten cholera patients a 
day in a place of fifty thousand, and then asked : " Do you think 
it safe to go ?" 

" I can't answer that. It all depends." 

Two facts now came to my relief. One was, that few people 
in India think cholera contagious. There are no separate hospi- 
tals for such cases, cholera patients being put in the same wards 
with patients suffering from fever and other diseases. The other 
fact was, that two weeks before, when I was in Puna, there had 
been a cholera case in the native bazar, and yet I had a most 
pleasant ride through that part of the city, and had suffered no 
harm, and saw no alarm anywhere. The truth is, nobody thinks 
of cholera as any more likely to happen than any mild disease. 
Dr. "Waugh told me afterwards that cholera prevailed more or 
less in all Indian towns, but that nobody minded it. It might 
be next door, but it frightened no one. It is very necessary to 
watch its beginning, and then manage it, as you can, with care 
and caution. Another is, to take care of one's diet. This must 
be said, however, that when cholera does come, and its first stage 
is neglected, the collapse is very sudden. 

Taking all things together, it did not seem much of a risk to 
spend my intervening clay, before meeting an engagement , at 
Bangalore, in Mysore, in making a halt in Madura, and using my 
only opportunity to see the famous pagoda, or temple, there — the 
largest, not only in India, but in the world. 

The Temple of Maduka. 

. Long before reaching Madura one can see the great towers 
which rise above the pagoda, and dominate not alone the city, 
but the whole surrounding country. In many of the Indian 
cities the temple is in the suburbs, and even completely alone 
in the country, having been left by the population drifting far 
out in other directions. But this is not the case in Madura. The 
pagoda is in the very heart of the old city. The bazars lead 
directly towards it, and overflow into it. It is the city in minia- 
ture, with its dirt, ill odors, poverty, wealth, superstition, and in- 
famous idolatry. All the surging tide of tradesmen flows tow- 



THE PEARL FISHERY.— MADURA AND ITS TEMPLE. 277 



ards and about it. ~No adequate conception of an Indian temple 
can be formed from any European illustration of sacred places. 
Perhaps the Troi'tska Monastery in Russia, where many cathe- 
drals are grouped around one central sacred place, making the 
whole a very Canterbury, is as near an approach to an Indian 
temple and its spaces as can be found anywhere west of Asia. 

While the object which gives 
Madura its chief celebrity in 
these modern days is its vast 
temple, in the ancient times its 




TEMPLE AND ROYAL SEPULCHRE, MADURA. 



university was its grand at- 
traction. Its fame as a 
seat of learning spread far 
and wide. I doubt not 
that its lecture - halls at- 
tracted students from all 
parts of the Oriental world. The heritage of the city was a rich 
grouping of intellectual, political, and social power ; for Madura 
was none other than the capital of the kingdom described by 
Ptolemy as the Regio Pandionis. In the third century the 
university shone as the literary centre of all India. From that 
time on, for ten centuries, or until the thirteenth, when the 



278 INDIRA. 

Persian Mohammedans invaded India, and Delhi became a com- 
petitor, the university of Madura reigned without a rival as 
the most splendid seat of Hindu science. From the meridian of 
Madura the longitude in Hindu geography was calculated, as 
in English geography the longitude is determined from Green- 
wich. 

The examinations required to enter the university were rigid. 
A broad system of popular education prevailed, and the late 
Mr. Bell's effort to establish education for the native masses was 
only a revival of a long-forgotten Hindu law. In those days every 
Hindu parent took his child to school when five years of age. 
This regulation seems to have been not only a law, but so deeply 
fixed as a duty, that the Hindu associated with it certain relig- 
ious observances. A ceremony was used in introducing the boy 
to his schoolmaster and the other scholars. His name was pub- 
licly recorded. A prayer was publicly offered to the image of 
Ganesh, the Hindu god of wisdom, imploring his help to enable 
the child to grow in wisdom.* 

The girls had all the privileges of the bo} 7 s. No social barrier 
stood in anybody's way of getting a university education. Caste, 
with its later iron rules, never entered the portals of the Madura 
university. The degraded pariah had equal privileges with the 
first-born son of a prince. One day a pariah and his sister ap- 
plied for admission, and they were both received. Time brought 
great changes with the two. The man became the president of 
the university, and is known to posterity as the learned Tiru 
Valluvan. He retained the president's chair until his death, and 
became the author of the " Kural," a poem still held in high es- 
teem by all Hindus. This work contains his thirteen hundred 
aphorisms, and is the oldest, as it is the most revered, work in 
the Tamil language, f It is a moral and didactic poem, abound- 
ing in beautiful and true sentiments. A standard edition of the 
"Kural," with English translation, grammatical analysis, and 
critical commentary, has lately been published in Madras. This 
edition, a high compliment to a pagan masterpiece, is the work 
of a native Christian minister. 

Tiru Yalluvan's sister vied in progress with her brother. She 

* " The Oriental Annual," 1836, pp. 29 ff. 

f Markham, " Travels in Peru and India," p. 416. 



THE PEARL FISHERY.— MADURA AND ITS TEMPLE. 279 

is known as the renowned Avvei, a celebrated poetess in Tamil 
verse. 

All traces of the university are now gone. The pagoda, or 
temple, is the great object of interest. There are conflicting 
opinions as to its antiquity. It is probable that the place itself 
was regarded sacred, and was the site of a temple long before a 
city was built here, and that the city grew out of the temple, 
and all about it. The immense structure gives clear evidence 
of its own antiquity. It was built in the third century before 
the Christian era, by King Kula Shekhara. It is evidently a 
case where this city, the capital of a large territory, has sprung 
into life from religious associations. Some parts of the pagoda 
are modern, and were built by Tirumal Kayak, in the first 
half of the seventeenth century. But one can easily distinguish 
the newer from the older. The effect, throughout, is one of 
great and undisturbed antiquity. 

The pagoda space is an immense parallelogram, extending 744 
feet from east to west, and 847 feet from north to south. The 
area is enclosed by a light wall, flanked at various points by nine 
colossal towers. These towers are of peculiar structure, all after 
the same model, and so disposed towards each other as to form 
a symmetrical combination. Each constitutes a gateway for 
entrance from different sides of the wall. As you enter you 
find yourself passing through a great open corridor. The go- 
pura is shaped like a tent, and on every side is ornamented with 
carvings. These represent the fabulous doings of the god Siva 
and his wife Minakshi, and ascend in lessening rows, or stories, 
until the apex is reached, which is sharp and curved, and re- 
minds one of the general form of an old Eoman galley. The 
colors of these gopuras are very rich, and, in the case of several, 
shine like fine tiling, or even gay enamel. The blue is espe- 
cially rich, and is fairly dazzling in the bright sunlight. While 
Siva is the god to whom the temple is supposed to have been 
dedicated, the more frequent representations of his wife, Minak- 
shi, prove her to have been the favorite of the people. 

The Scene in the Madura Temple. 

Two gopuras constitute the great entrances. Through one 
of these I went, followed by a crowd of about fifty ill-clad beg- 
gars. They held high carnival as they passed around and against 



280 INDIRA. 

me, and called for alms. I noticed many sleepers in the darker 
corners, in various parts of the temple spaces. They lie in every 
position. It seems a habit of the Maduran, when he gets thor- 
oughly tired in his tent, or in the bazar, to drop into this temple 
and fall down for a good nap at the feet of Siva or some other 
idol, for Madura is a spot which for ages has been held strangely 
sacred by the Hindu worshipper. Having passed through the 
gopura, and completed the passage of the great corridor, one 
sees just the beginnings of this wonderful temple. There stretch 
out before you great reaches of passages and halls, and, still 
farther, corridors in all possible directions. But for my safe 
guide, who added to his other duties the good one of keeping 
off the crowd of ragged and starving and ill-smelling beggars 
with a stout bamboo rod, I should have lost my way at once. 
At your right you see an immense hall, the Hall of One Thou- 
sand Columns, which extends far away until it is lost in dark 
and distant spaces. But, beyond it — for I came back that way — 
there is a special temple sacred to the ruling god, Siva. At 
your left are vendors of images, sweetmeats, toys, and various 
other articles, which, for some reason, are permitted to be sold 
within the sacred walls. The men who sell them are squatted 
over the floor on mats of palm, with their wares about them. 
Think of a seller of small wares, in a temple, sitting or standing, 
with his goods arranged on a counter or row of shelves ! Such 
a thing would be with us preposterous beyond measure. The drift 
is downward. No Hindu will stand if he can possibly drop on 
the floor. He doubles up his legs under him. That is his normal 
position. He may be talking with you this moment, and as 
much interested in standing or walking as any one. But a sud- 
den change comes over him. Down he drops, and no boy ever 
closed the two blades of a jack-knife more quickly than the 
Hindu doubles himself up, either on the temple floor, or at the 
side of the street, or in his own doorway. And there he can 
sit by the hour, nay, the whole day, and be as calm as the se- 
rene face of Buddha himself. 

Perhaps these sellers in the Madura pagoda have some ances- 
tral claim on the favor of the authorities, by which they receive 
the privilege of spreading out their wares in the holy place. 
Over your head there flies about a flock of cloves. They are sa- 
cred, and woe to the hand that would hurt a feather on their 



THE PEARL FISHERY.— MADURA AND ITS TEMPLE. 281 



sweet heads ! The worshippers feed them. It is a sacred priv- 
ilege. Yonder, to your left, three sacred elephants are feeding, 
and frisking their trunks about 
as if they really knew that they 
were picking up great wisps of 
straw and hay within the Hin- 
du's holy place. But I must 
hasten, or their priestly keepers 
will loosen the chains of one of 
them in a trice, and have the 
mammoth dropping down on 
all fours, and pulling me up on 
his back, to take an elephant 
ride through this labyrinth of 
marvels. Imagine the absurd- 
ity of an elephant ride on a 
temple floor ! Yet that is what 
you can do here, and take a 
long promenade, and never have 
him repeat his pathway. But 
by going through this first door- 
way I get away from the ven- 
dors and the importuning ele- 
phants, and pass out of sight of 
the Hall of a Thousand Col- 
umns and its great, intermina- 
ble spaces. Here one is in a 
corridor nearly two hundred 
feet long, with pillars groaning 
beneath a wealth of sculptured 
images. ISTow comes a brazen 
door. The frame is vast and 
heavy, and is entirely surrounded 
with brazen lamps, all of which 
are lighted during the Tailot- 
sava, " the oil festival." 

Monier Williams happened to 
visit the Madura pagoda at the 
time of the " oil festival," and thus describes the wretched scene : 
" A coarse image of the goddess Minakshi, profusely decorated 




DETAIL OF A PILLAR OF THE HALL 
CALLED PUTHU MUNTAPAM, MA- 
DURA. 



282 INDIRA. 

with jewels, and having a high head-dress of hair, was carried 
in the centre of a long procession on a canopied throne, borne 
by eight Brahmans, to a platform in the magnificent hall, oppo- 
site the temple. There the ceremony of undressing the idol, 
removing its ornaments, anointing its head with oil, bathing, 
redecorating, and redressing it was gone through, amid shouting, 
singing, beating of tom-toms, waving of lights and cowries, ring- 
ing of bells, and deafening discord from forty or fifty so-called 
musical instruments, each played by a man who did his best to 
overpower the sound of all the others combined. At the head 
of the procession was borne an image of Ganesh. Then followed 
three elephants, a long line of priests, musicians, attendants bear- 
ing cowries and umbrellas, with a troop of dancing-girls bring- 
ing up the rear. 

" No sight I witnessed in India made me more sick at heart 
than this. It presented a sad example of the utterly debasing 
character of the idolatry which, notwithstanding the counter- 
acting influences of education and Christianity, still enslaves 
the masses of the population, deadening their intellects, corrupt- 
ing their imaginations, warping their affections, perverting their 
consciences, and disfiguring the fair soil of a beautiful country 
with hideous usages and practices unsanctioned by even their 
own minds and works." * 

You are now introduced into a darker corridor, and then again 
into a broad and pillared space, where the columns are sculpt- 
ured, being cut through and through into figures of dancing 
gods, like Krishna when he played his flute to the shepherds. 
You now look out upon a little sheet of water with a miniature 
temple in the middle of it. This is the Lake of the Golden 
Lilies. Near by it is the little chapel where Queen Mangam- 
mal's subjects starved her to death in 1706, having placed food 
so near that she could see and smell it, but not taste it. We 
now enter another department of the temple ; above there are 
stone images, up around the pillars, in all corners, and hanging 
down over you wherever you go near walls or archways. These 
images are not grave and majestic, but, in the main, grotesque, 
bacchanalian, in fantastic attitudes, and often combining the 
bodies of man and beast. They represent, for the most part, 

* " Religious Thought and Life in India," part i., pp. 442, 443. 



THE PEARL FISHERY.— MADURA AND ITS TEMPLE. 283 

the escapades of Siva. Every now and then one comes to a 
shrine where worshippers lie prostrate before it, and remain mo- 
tionless for a long time. No one knows how long it has taken 
these poor dusty pilgrims to reach this sacred place. Perhaps 
they have been three months on the journey. They come from 
the very base of the Himalayas or the borders of Tibet, and, 
now that they have reached the end of their pilgrimage, would 
die with a happy heart. There are several gold-plated images, 
veiled from view, which represent the god Siva or his wife in 
some part of their marvellous career. The representations in 
stone, both of men and the brute world, are frequent every- 
where. Elephants, horses, cattle, and every kind of animal held 
sacred in the Hindu mythology, are cut out of stone, and made 
to portray the supposed divine attributes of Siva and his wife. 
Here, too, are the very vehanas, or great chariots, plated with 
gold, in which the god and his wife are taken out on special 
days in the year to ride. Besides these, there are silver litters, 
which serve the same divine purpose on other days. 

One grows weary of the procession of splendid but gross 
images and idols in this vast space. Now you are out for a 
time in the open air, where a vacancy has been left in the roof, 
and the beautiful sky throws down its blessed sunlight upon this 
terrible picture of idolatry. But very soon you are brought 
again under the shadowing and lofty ceiling, and, before you 
are aware of it, you are almost lost in a dark labyrinth of sculpt- 
ured pillars, black idols in gold wrappings, dusty and absorbed 
pilgrims, cheerful doves, and the constant crowd of men and 
boys who follow you, either to sell you their sweets, or beg for 
your loose pice. All at once you come out from a corridor to 
the marble steps of a miniature lake. Be careful now. Only 
the real Hindu dares to step down into its waters. For every 
drop is sacred, and must touch only the skin of Siva's chil- 
dren. Over the calm surface the towers stand as gay sentinels, 
from century to century. Turning again, you must look care- 
fully, or you will tread upon a sleeping form, which has dropped 
in from the hot air and let fall its burden, and eaten its rice, and 
now rests an hour. There is a mother, with a nose-ring so large 
that it hangs down over her mouth, and she must eat through 
it or starve. Her ankles are encircled by heavy silver anklets, 
cut like serpents. Her toes are glittering with jewelled rings. 



284 INDIRA. 

She has led her child up before an image of Siva's wife, and 
is explaining what it all means. Poor woman ! Little she 
knows the truth. The One Name above all others she has never 
once heard. Here is a dwarf, who stands beside a shrine, and 
holds out his withered hand for an anna. Here, in a place 
where the statuary has given way to the wear of ages, are work- 
ers in stone, who are making new pillars, with sculptured flut- 
ings, to take the place of the old. All the work, every stroke 
of mallet and chisel, must be done right here, where everything 
is holy, and Siva smiles calmly down upon the labor. 

After inspecting the temple, I went to the great hall which 
Tirumal Nayak, the builder of the modern parts of the ]3agoda, 
also built. He reigned from 1621 to 1657^ The hall was 
erected by him as a temporary lodging-place for Ganesh, the 
chief idol of the temple, which was taken hither from the tem- 
ple each year for ten days. The hall measures three hundred 
and thirty-three feet in length, and one hundred and five in 
width. It required twenty-two years to build it, and cost five 
millions of dollars. The gate tower has door-posts of single 
blocks of granite sixty feet high. In this great pillared hall 
there are statues of the king and his six wives. When this won- 
derful structure was finished, the king conducted his queen, a 
princess of the house of Tanjor, to see it and admire its splendor. 

" Has your father," asked he, " of whose greatness you so 
often tell me, any building in his dominions like this ?" 

" Like this !" exclaimed the queen ; k ' why, the sheds in which 
he keeps his cattle are finer." 

The king threw his dagger at his wife. It hit her in the hip, 
and caused her death.* 

The palace of Tirumal Nayak, at Madura, stands among the 
foremost in massive grandeur among the royal residences of 
India. Some of its great courts are now used for offices of 
administration and law. The vast corridors, the wonderful 
domes, the rich carving in stone, combine to make this building 
one of the most remarkable pieces of architecture in existence.! 



* Russell, "The Prince of Wales's Tour: a Diary in India." New York ed. 
(1874), p. 274. 

t Temple gives it the first rank (" India in 1880," p. 38). Fergusson, in 
"History of Architecture," presents an account of this palace, p. 381. 



THE PEARL FISHERY.— MADURA AND ITS TEMPLE. 285 

Over the great chamber which is supposed to have been Tiru- 
mal's bedroom there are four holes through the roof. Through 
these are said to have been suspended four hooks, which sup- 
ported Tirumal's cot. One large hole is alleged to have been 
made by a thief, through which he descended on the chain sup- 
porting one corner of the king's bed, and stole the crown jewels. 
Tirumal, as the story runs, offered an hereditary estate to the 
thief if he would come, voluntarily, and restore the jewels, add- 
ing that no questions should be asked. The thief appeared, and 
restored the jewels. The king asked no questions, but — decapi- 
tated the thief. 

If such were the habits of one king, what must have been 
those of many others of that long unbroken line of one hundred 
and sixteen Madura kings, extending from the fourth century 
before our era down to modern times ! 




SAKASWATI. 



CHAPTER XXYIII. 

THE TEMPLE FORTRESS OF TRICHINOPOLI. 

From Madura I took the train for Trichinopoli. Throughout 
this whole southern portion of India there are abrupt hills, which 
rise almost perpendicularly from the plains. These peaks, like 
those near Haidarabad, are not wooded mountains, but bare rocks, 
and sometimes single boulders, of immense size, and standing on 
end. They are the offshoots of the ISTilgiri Hills. Tall shrines they 
are, Nature's great sentinels, keeping watch over Southern India. 
They have been used from time immemorial by robbers and war- 
riors for keeping in awe the surrounding country. In the far- 
back, barbaric days, the kings built their houses upon them, 
which, as with the castles on the Rhine and Danube, served the 
double purpose of palace and fortress. 

Each of these great hills has a history, if one only knew it, 
which combines all the features of an Indian Iliad. Sometimes 
the top is so shaped that it is difficult to ascend it, much more to 
build upon it. Besides, there is often, in addition to the fortress, 
a diminutive temple, with a passage up to it, grooved out of the 
solid granite. In India, the combination, under the same roof, of 
the temple and the secular building is not infrequent. It seems 
to have been the original purpose, in the remote Hindu days, to 
give sanctity to a stronghold by combining with the place a 
temple. He has a keen eye who can tell, in such a case, where 
the secular ends and the sacred begins. 

Here in Trichinopoli, the temple forms a brotherhood with a 
great fortress. The whole group is at once the abode of old-time 
warriors and imaginary deities. How could a king give up a fort 
where the most sacred associations were combined with every 
atom of the glistening rock beneath? All the early record is 
gone with the flood of faded memories which the new age has 
swept away. In the case of Trichinopoli, only the story since 
the first half of the eighteenth century is known, and that is 



THE TEMPLE-FORTRESS OF TRICHINOPOLI. 287 

written in blood. The magnificent site of the fortress has been 
its fatal endowment. Not even the sacred character of the tem- 
ple, which is a vital part of the whole vast structure, has made an 
arrow or cannon shot the less. 

The Hill. 

The hill of Trichinopoli. on which the great fortress stands, 
is the highest, most picturesque, and most associated with im- 
portant historical events, of any abrupt hill in Southern India. 
Around it many a great army has battled for dominion long 
before the Portuguese and later Europeans dared to touch foot 
upon the fields of Hindustan. Many of these contests between 
the native warring tribes having passed into oblivion, the broken 
sculptures in the temple that clings about the fort are the only 
pens which describe the narrative of the hot battles in the dis- 
tant days. When the Europeans came, and began to contend 
for the mastery of India, one of the first things they did was to 
choose sides between contending Indian armies, led by brave 
kings and nawab-s. and between the two to walk into possession 
and power. The land lying at the base of Trichinopoli was con- 
tested for many times before Clive appeared upon the scene. In 
fact, the whole history of the place is a story of unbroken warfare, 
from 1736 down to 1801, when the French and natives marched 
down and the English marched up. This place was next in im- 
portance to Madras, as a strategic point towards the final occu- 
pation of the country by the English. Clive saw this, and while 
Major Lawrence was really the immediate commander, it was 
owing to Clive's desperate bravery and unwearied diligence that 
the French were defeated here, and the entire country, save a 
few still lingering French spots, became an English possession. 
The victory of Trichinopoli made possible the victory of Plassey. 

Trichinopoli was a necessity to the English possession of all 
Southern India. In the midst of this plain, with its rapid river 
and the thick jungle along its banks, and these venerable tem- 
ples, which might be counted by the score. Lawrence and Clive 
solved the problem of English rule in the Eastern world. "With- 
out the combinations and triumphs south of Madras, it would 
not have been within the range of possibility to establish the 
rule of the Saxon either in the Xorth or the South. 

As one leaves the plain and begins the ascent of the hill, he 



288 INDIKA. 

passes, on the left, the Tappe Kulam, a great tank of about 
two hundred and fifty feet square. It is of stone, and is sur- 
rounded with houses. In the centre is a beautiful miniature 
temple. In one of the houses on the border of the tank Clive 
lived when engaged in military operations here. At the door 
of the particular one which is supposed by several to have been 
his residence are two kneeling elephants, cut in stone, each over 
five feet high. This may have been, at one time, a Hindu temple. 

Nothing is wanting to this immense fortress, either for nature 
or art, to make it impregnable. First of all is the immense moat, 
thirty feet wide and twelve feet deep, which surrounds the outer 
wall. Then comes the wall itself, which extends two thousand 
yards from east to west and twelve hundred yards from north 
to south. This wall is eighteen feet high, five feet thick, and is 
flanked by great round towers. Then comes an open space of 
twenty-five feet in width. After this we have a second wall, 
running exactly parallel with the outer one, and protecting the 
fortress in all directions. On the inner wall the greatest de- 
pendence was placed. It was built to resist any force that might 
get through or over the outer one. This inner wall is thirty 
feet high, and of great width at the base. It grows narrower 
as it ascends, but its top is ten feet broad, the parapet being of 
solid stones. There are loopholes for guns on every side. Every 
foot of the way, from the bank of the Kaveri Eiver below to the 
very corner of this marvellous fortress, has been hotly contested. 

No historian can tell the full story of the blood that has been 
shed and the races that have fought upon this very spot. Let 
us review a few of these deadly passages at arms within the last 
one hundred and fifty years. In the year 1736 the widow of 
the late reigning raja admitted a few soldiers into the fortress, 
in order to pay over a little tribute, which they were collecting 
from various parts of the Karnatic. They seized the place, and 
the queen was made prisoner. Soon the tide turned, and the Mar- 
hattas captured the place in 1740, and killed Dost Ali. Within 
ten years both the French and the English appeared upon the 
scene, and now it was a conflict between native rulers and for- 
eign invaders. It long lay in doubt which native prince would 
come out best, or which people, the English or the French, would 
go down in the general crash. The English took sides with the 
Marhattas, and the French allied themselves with the rulers of 



THE TEMPLE-FORTRESS OF TRICHINOPOLI. 289 

the Karnatic, whose army was led by Chanda Sahib. In 1752 
Major Lawrence, who led the English and the Marhattas, de- 
feated the French and the Karnatic troops, and marched up the 
hill and took their quarters in the fortress. 

But the fighting was not over.. The Karnatic soldiers and the 
French still lay near. Clive, who was Lawrence's best fighter, 
went off with a body of troops to deal another blow to the ene- 
my. He was shot, but not fatally ; and though he lost much 
blood, he was not too weak to give orders, to capture prisoners, 
and to secure a decisive victory to the English arms. But it was 
of short duration. The French had skilfully formed an alliance 
with the Marhattas. But Lawrence, with Clive as his powerful 
helper, defeated them all in 1753. Soon, however, affairs took 
an adverse turn. The native princes and their army, who to-day 




TEMPLE- CASTLE, TRICHINOPOLI. 

fought side by side with the English, turned against them the 
next day, and fought with the French. Hardly a week passed 
in which the contestants did not change about in one way or 
another. The fortress of Trichinopoli was generally the cen- 
tre of the operations. The army was always victorious which 
could win this great height. The first victory, however, lay 
with the English. The Nawabs of the Karnatic, who had for- 
feited their claim to English sympathy because of their final alle- 
giance to the French, had to give up their great fortress in 1801. 
Since this time the Union Jack of England has floated from its 
lofty granite crest. 

The temple fortress of Trichinopoli has a double dedication to 
the god Siva and the fortunes of war. 
19 



290 1NDIKA. 

The Ascent to the Temple. 

The entrance is through a great and high gateway of carved 
and polished stone. One must look high, and not hurry, if he 
would enjoy the rich carving of this magnificent entrance. The 
doors are gone now. The ill fortunes of war have shattered 
them, no doubt, and only the broad passage through the great 
doorway itself is all that speaks of the immense doors through 
which conquering and conquered kings have many a time passed 
in procession. There is not a stone beneath one's feet that has 
not fairly swum in the blood of Indians long before any stranger 
from Europe arrived and contended for the wealth of the price- 
less land. The doorway is covered with immense slabs of solid 
stone. On either side are pillars, each one a single stone of eight- 
een feet in height. They are of no architecture known to Eu- 
rope, but belong to the early Jain style, where the capitals abound 
in lions and other animals. We are now in a covered passage, 
broad, lofty, impressive. It is vaulted with great solid stones, 
laid across from side to side, and we can see them in all their 
massiveness. We come next to the forecourt of the temple of 
Siva. It is now sadly neglected, and there is but little evi- 
dence of worship ; but on days sacred to the gods Siva, Parvati, 
Ganesh, and Subramanya their images are taken out, a proces- 
sion is formed, and various rites are celebrated, as from time 
immemorial. 

I now passed through the forecourt of the temple, and, look- 
ing out in front, could see a great flight of broad steps, which 
rise far out in advance, until the steps and the lofty ceiling 
merge into each other. I knew the steps continued, but could 
not see how far. The vista darkens out in front and above. In 
1849 there was an accident here. There had gathered a multi- 
tude from all parts of the country to worship Ganesh on the day 
sacred to him. From some cause the dense throng became 
frightened, and lost all control of itself, and the people tumbled 
down the great stone steps, one over another, and became a 
tangled and crushed helpless mass. When relief came, five hun- 
dred dead bodies were taken out of this great passageway. The 
ascent of this stairway is not easy. The steps are high, and 
their inclination is abrupt, and they are two hundred and ninety 
in number. They are painted in red and white stripes. The 



THE TEMPLE-FORTRESS OF TRICHINOPOLI. 291 

impression which one has, as he ascends them, is that he is pass- 
ing up through a solid rock. He is, in fact, climbing a great 
hill, beneath an ascending archway, over great stone stairways, 
with only now and then a landing. Up again I had to go, and 
still keep going, and wondered when the end would come, and I 
could see the bright blaze of the Indian sunlight again. I had 
had no such sensation since, years ago, I climbed slowly up 
through the secret stairway cut through the solid rock of Sor- 
rento, from the shore of the Mediterranean to the house on the 
cliff in which Tasso had lived, and from which one sees Capri, 
Ischia, Castelamare, and all the enchantments of the Bay of 
Naples. 

This great passageway served two purposes. It was once the 
entrance into the temple, and the only pass by which an army 
could ascend to the fort which crowns the crest of the colossal 
boulder of Trichinopoli. At last we came to a halting-place. 
Here was a temple. It is not spacious, but abounds in images 
of the Hindu gods and other symbols of false worship. The 
altar was covered with offerings of rice and yellow flowers. I 
now turned to the right and came out into the free air once 
more. I was now where man never built or carved an image 
from stone. 

I stood on the solid, native rock, towards whose bald and 
flinty face I had been all the time toiling, and yet hardly know- 
ing it. But I had still a higher point to reach. Fifty-seven 
gentle steps have been cleft from the bold surface of the rock to 
prevent the feet from slipping and the wind from whisking one 
away. It is no easy thing to walk up them. I would much 
sooner try my chances again by a climb up Mt. Washington, 
from the side of the Crawford House, and lie flat on the boul- 
ders when the wind is high. There would at least be some 
chance of finding one's self again, should the wind pick one up 
and waft him away. But to slip here, on the rock of Trichi- 
nopoli, brings one down — where shall 1 say ? On the roof of some 
far-down shrine, or, more likely, on some uncovered peak of the 
lower rocks, or, most likely, into some green-covered and slimy 
tank, with its sleepy fish and lazy bathers, and which has not 
been cleaned out since Clive's besom swept all India. What 
with the fiercely blowing wind and the direct and intense heat 
of the Indian sun, although in mid-December, I hardly knew 



292 INDIKA. 

what to do. But my umbrella had to come down lest it might 
waft me away. I stopped to catch breath and a new foothold, 
and then started for the farther way. 

A slippery path was this, but I was thinking what it must 
have been when it was drenched in blood, and the living and 
the dead were hurled from this awful height, when Saxon and 
Indian struggled, hand to hand, and inch by inch, on this awful 
Hindu rock, and helped to decide the fate of all India for all time. 
There is no spot in all this wearying upward path, either over the 
lower stones which man has lifted into place for worship or over 
the firmer ones which nature has reared into higher service, 
which has not been contested for by hot blood and beneath a 
blazing sky and merciless sun. 

Just now, when I was comforting myself with the thought 
that I had about reached the top of the temple fort, I discovered 
that I had only made a turn in the rocky path. I had yet to 
enter a deep staircase, cut into the solid rock, and consisting 
of twenty-six more steps. Up these I went, and, crowning the 
whole, there was still the Mandapam ; and failing in reaching it, 
and taking refuge from the heat and the wind beneath its can- 
opy, I was glad to rest awhile, and let my turbaned guide drop 
down in a corner and catch a nap, and wait my time. He was 
losing nothing by the stay. Few people, I was told, ever came 
to the fort to ascend it. They knew the fatigue too well. Hap- 
pily, I was ignorant of the ordeal. 

But one thing no one could know who had not ascended the 
highest point — namely, the wonderful view of the surrounding 
country. The eye ranges over an immense expanse, some fifty or 
sixty miles in diameter. Here lay at my feet the hottest battle- 
field of Southern India. On every hand the Indian tribes, with 
the French and English, as later and upstart combatants, have 
struggled for the possession of the whole country from Madras 
down to Cape Comorin. 

The plain of Trichinopoli is even, and only broken near at 
hand by the abrupt hills which rise like cones from the surface. 
The Golden Rock stands out like a great pillar against the south- 
ern sky. Eastward are the French Rocks, once a bulwark of the 
French in the last century, when they hoped to save India to 
their rule. Out towards the north, like a thread of silver, sweeps 
and curves the Kaveri River on its way to lose itself in the Bay 



THE TEMPLE-FORTRESS OF TRIGHINOPOLI. 293 

of Bengal. Along its banks is the sacred island of Srirangam, 
with bright pagodas shimmering in the blazing sunlight, through 
the dense jungle that enwraps all the works of man. Away to 
the northwest is the Tele Malai mountain range, rising two thou- 
sand feet above the plain, while far off to the north, as the crow 
flies, the Kale Malai Mountains tower four thousand feet. To 
the east the Pache Hills bound the wonderful horizon. There 
is, then, on nearly every side, a framework of hills, varied and 
broken, yet blue and picturesque. Within this setting there is 
the city of Trichinopoli, with temples standing over all the plain, 
towering trees, old forts, a winding river, many small streams, 
dismantled forts, patches of thick jungle, villages by the score, 
and many wayside shrines. 

You are in a new world. The Orient is everywhere prom- 
inent. But it must not be forgotten that the Englishman is 
here. Out on the Bay of Bengal, to the east, his steamers glide 
through the waters. Yonder, like a spider's thread, his tele- 
graph runs, all the way from Ceylon to Calcutta, and, for that 
matter, to Westminster Hall. Away off in the distance, in that 
cheerful compound, there is a newspaper, published by him, and 
in his own language, and for his own people. Down that nar- 
row lane, as you can plainly see with your glass, is a company 
of red-coats, who do not know the Hindustani, except to give 
orders to their servants and soldiers. Theirs is the Queen's Eng- 
lish, and nothing else. They live in India to keep the country 
in English safety. The conquered Hindus are their hewers of 
wood and drawers of water. Then the presence of the English- 
man means more than the mere soldier. He stands out in front 
of the missionary and the missionary's Bible, and none dare 
touch either. Verily, the times are changed wonderfully since 
Judson was not permitted to stay in Calcutta and preach the 
Gospel for fear of disturbing Hindu prejudice. Well for the 
world he did not ! He went across the Bay of Bengal, unrolled 
his flag, and hence the Burmese Christianity of all time to come. 



CHAPTEK XXIX. 

THE SRIRANGAM TEMPLE. 

Feom the great Temple Fort of Trichinopoli I drove three 
miles to the Srirangam temple. In India some pleasing myth 
generally underlies the ancient temple. That which gave rise 
to this wonderful structure of Srirangam may be taken as an 
illustration of the whole class. Kama had a powerful chief, Yib- 
hishana by name, who lived in Ceylon, but had been long from 
home, and was now about to return. As a parting gift, and in 
recognition of his great services, Kama presented him with a 
golden image of Vishnu. The only instruction was, not to lay 
it down until he reached home. But the journey was long, and 
Vibhishana must have some rest by the way. Besides, he could 
not think of passing the great sacred tank of Srirangam without 
bathing. So he handed over the precious idol to an attendant, 
charging him to hold it upright, and by no means to let it leave his 
hand. But the idol was heavy, and its owner was long in the 
bath, and hence the follower let it rest upon the earth a moment. 
It was too late. The image could not be raised by both hands. 
There was not power enough even in Vibhishana's hands to stir 
it a hair's-breadth. Hence a shrine had to be built over it, and 
a great temple, and finally a group of temples, whose fame has 
gone out into all the Brahman world. The general design of 
the immense structure is to repeat in stone, for human view, the 
Yaikuntha, or seven series of quadrangular courts which consti- 
tute the heaven of "Vishnu. 

I was a little disturbed by the cabman bringing his horses to 
a sudden stop ; but I soon found that all vehicles must stand far 
outside of the innermost temple. It was clear that to walk 
through the great spaces would require much time and no little 
exertion beneath the blazing Indian sun, whose rigor I had re- 
cently tested by my climb to the summit of Trichinopoli. I passed 
through an immense gopura, or towered gateway, each side of 



THE SRIRANQAM TEMPLE. 295 

which is lined with pillars. Everywhere I was struck with the 
magnitude of the stones and the minuteness of the carvings. 
Many stones are forty feet high. The roof of the high tower 
consists of horizontal slabs of fabulous size and weight. Having 
gone through several of these gopuras, and examined many carv- 
ings, each differing from all the rest, I reached a stairway, by 
which I ascended to the flat roof of the principal temple, and 
walked all over it. 

Here, for the first time, I could see the plan of this wonderful 
structure. First of all is the great outer wall, which encloses a 
space no less than 2475 feet wide and 2880 feet long. Outside 
of this the profane city lies, with its homes, bazars, industries, 
poverty, pollution, and whatever else enters into the curious 
make-up of a great Indian city. Inside this wall there are tem- 
ples, towers, and halls of all sizes, from the little secluded spot 
where only a dozen can conveniently bow to Vishnu to the great 
Hall of a Thousand Columns. But there is a singular order. 
"Within the outer wall, after a due interval of a broad way, there 
comes a second, and then a third wall, until you reach the most 
holy place. Each square is entered by four lofty gateways, 
whose ceiling is painted in bright colors, and whose outer towers 
rise, in the shape of a pyramid, to a height overlooking the entire 
group of buildings, and visible at a great distance before reaching 
the city. Every step, from the outermost to the innermost wall, 
is towards the holy of holies. Every new quadrangle brings 
into view some new group of sculptured marvels — all minute, 
barbaric, combining the brute and the human form in various 
ways, and all representing the legendary deeds of Vishnu. 

When you have entered the innermost enclosure, you stand 
near the holy of holies. This is the last spot where any but a 
Hindu may stand. Not knowing the limit of the proprieties, I 
stepped beyond the proper line, and was immediately obstructed 
by a crowd of ill-kempt Hindus. The idol crown is covered with 
diamonds, while emeralds and rubies abound in great number. 
There are idols of gold, covered with jewels. Even the toes 
are set off with rings of gold studded with precious stones. 
There are, also, chains of gold, which have the peculiarity that 
they are as flexible as cord, an art of working gold long practised 
in this venerable city as a special industry. There is also a large 
bowl of solid gold, besides long chains of gold coins. 



296 INDIKA. 

Perhaps the most remarkable carvings are in the Hall of One 
Thousand Columns. Each column is a monolith eighteen feet 
high. Here is a single row of pillars, a front row, where the 
statuary is so combined with the pillar that it is the pillar itself. 
For example, here is a column in the shape of a horseman. His 
horse is rearing, being frightened by a tiger. This tiger is a 
savage beast, rampant, and attacking both rider and horse. The 
horseman, who is a hunter withal, is thrusting his spear into the 
very vitals of the tiger. Besides these figures, there are also men 
on foot, the attendants of the divine rider, who have shorter weap- 
ons, and are stabbing the tiger with great impetuosity. Now 
all these figures are combined into a single pillar. The whole 
is a colossal piece of open-work. Think of what must be the 
effect of a whole row of such marvels. There is not a particle 
of relief. Each detail is a reproduction of the living form. It 
is like witnessing a great hunting-scene in a Singhalese jungle. 
Then, too, each column differs from all the rest. For it is a 
characteristic of Hindu art to repeat nothing. Each of these 
figures relates to the legendary history of Yishnu, and is mi- 
nutely described in the Yedas. 

It was never meant that all within the great outer wall should 
be silent, and only belong to the temple service. On the con- 
trary, while all within that enclosure is strictly sacred, there is 
really a town, if not a veritable city, within the wall. But all 
must be sacred. Here are priests in great number, whose offices 
relate not only to the service, but to keeping the building in or- 
der. They are of all grades, from the highest Brahmans, spring- 
ing from the brain of Brahma, to the lowest sweepers, each order 
being defined from ancient times, and sacredly preserved. They 
all sleep within the wall, and gather sanctity from their duties. 
Besides these there are other classes, writers and what not, who 
have something to do with the temple, and whose services are 
paid for out of the old endowments. The dancing-girls live here. 
They, too, are very liberally paid out of the same endowment. 
Their very costume, and their golden bangles, anklets, necklaces, 
toe-rings, and other ornaments, some of which have the addition 
of precious stones, tell the story of the wealth by which they are 
supported. Monier Williams relates that one of the Tanjor 
girls informed him that she had been recently robbed of jewels 
valued at twenty-five thousand rupees. Here, too, are the sacred 



THE SRIRANGAM TEMPLE. 297 

elephants, which must not eat a single straw that is not sacred 
to the worship of the divine Vishnu. Great, sleek fellows they 
are. They are taught all manner of priestly tricks, even to the 
deft putting out of the trunk to take a two-anna piece. 

These buildings have not grown suddenly to their present num- 
ber or proportions. They have been added from time to time, 
according to gifts from far and near. The fame of Vishnu is as 
wide as the Brahman faith, and that an image once belonging 
to him should exist has attracted generous sacrifices from the 
pious during many centuries. The poor, who could give but 
few rupees, have had single carvings made here, as their sacri- 
fice. The rich have filled a hall with sculptured pillars, and so 
paid the price of some great sinning. Kings have reared walls 
or towers, or caused' a series of statues to be erected, and thus 
have quieted their conscience after many a score of black crimes. 
Queens and fair ladies of distant courts, in those barbaric days 
before a Portuguese dared to turn his pinnace towards India's 
coral strand, took off their brightest diamonds and most dazzling 
amethysts, and bore them, in person, long distances, and, on bend- 
ed knees, presented them as offerings to the image itself, for its 
crown or its robe or ornaments. "When the fitful life was about 
to end, many a niggardly hand relaxed its grasp upon its gold, 
and spent the last da} T s on earth in finding the way to Sriran- 
gam, and laying on- Vishnu's altar a gift of treasure and flow- 
ers for rearing a sculptured colonnade, or endowing the support 
of a dozen dancing-girls for the temple, or even adding another 
temple to the already tangled and crowded group. 

" No sight," says Williams, " is to be seen in any part of India 
that can at all compare with the unique effect produced by its 
series of seven quadrangular enclosures formed by seven squares 
of massive walls, one within the other — every square pierced 
by pyramidal towers rivalling in altitude the adjacent rock of 
Trichinopoli. The idea is, that each investing square of walls 
shall form courts of increasing sanctity, which shall conduct the 
worshipper by regular gradations to a central holy of holies of 
unique shape and proportions. In fact, the entire fabric of 
shrines, edifices, towers, and enclosures is supposed to be a ter- 
restrial counterpart of Vishnu's heaven (Vaikuntha), to which 
his votaries are destined to be transported." * 

* "Religious Thought and Life in India," p. 448. 



298 INDIRA. 

There are seasons when long pilgrimages are made to the Sri- 
rangam temple. The fame of its image is so far-spread and so 
deeply seated that many thousands come from every quarter of 
India, and even from British Burma, to fall in reverent adora- 
tion before the recumbent image of Vishnu. 

The great day of the year is the 27th of December. If the 
pilgrim has reached the temple on this day he may count him- 
self privileged far beyond his fellows in all the Hindu world. 
As he enters the great outer gateway he begins to be affected 
by the splendor of the scene. Then he advances, and passes 
through another, and still another, until he is fairly overwhelmed 
by what his eyes behold. He finally reaches the innermost ady- 
tum. This is Heaven's Gate, and he is there on the only day of 
the year when even the priestly hands of the highest Brahmans 
may open it. This must be done, too, at four o'clock in the 
morning, long before the dawn has shot across the Bay of Ben- 
gal, or smitten the gay enamel on the lofty gopuras. The re- 
cumbent image of Vishnu must not be disturbed. Nor could it 
be, according to Brahman faith. But in these lands there is 
always an easy way to get out of an impossibility. Another 
image can be made ; and there is enough wealth in the hands 
of dying misers and cut-throats to cover it over with priceless 
gems. So that image, when once the narrow portal is unlocked, 
is borne out by the priests, and held aloft for the multitude to 
behold. 

Every foot-sore pilgrim of the fifty thousand, or possibly a 
hundred thousand, is now happy. It is his first glimpse of Heav- 
en ; for has he not entered the Gate ? Just behind the great 
image there are eighteen other images, of Vaishnava saints, 
brought along by the priests. Then come the priests, in great 
number, chanting in wild and plaintive notes the old hymns of 
the Vedas. With the chanting is the tumultuous music of the 
sacred bands, which have come from distant shrines to help their 
brothers here to swell the welcome of heavenly minstrelsy. The 
celebration being constantly varied in scenic display, the atten- 
tion of the pilgrims is intense throughout. Some are very aged. 
Others have come with life just opening before them. But all 
have the same poor belief — this is heaven on earth to every 
worshipper. His sins of the past are all gone. He has bathed 
in the sacred tank of Srirangam, and gone through the narrow 



THE SRIRANGAM TEMPLE. 



299 



portal with his gift to the priests and offerings to the idol, and 
may now go down into his own grave, or back into the sinning 
world, or let the car of Jagannath roll over his prostrate body. 
It is all the same. He has even already passed through Heav- 
en's Gate, and beheld with his own poor, human eyes, the Heav- 
en of Vishnu. 




AFTABA (WATER-VESSEL) SIYAH KALAMKART, MORADABAD. 



CHAPTEK XXX. 

A RUN INTO MYSORE. 

Several friends stood on the platform to give me a cordial 
greeting as the train entered the Bangalore station. Bangalore 
is the capital of the province of Mysore, a large district con- 
stituting the intermediate land between the Bombay Presidency 
of the northwest and the Madras Presidency of the southeast. 
One finds here, as everywhere in India, the traces of terrible 
havoc. Cornwallis, who gained in India the prestige he lost 
by his surrender of the American colonies to Washington at 
Yorktown, fought bravely in this period. But, long before his 
day, the struggles between native princes had been of the most 
deadly character, and the cruelties in time of 
peace had been of the most refined and secret 
type. 

Mysore, in its general grouping, belongs to 
the Madras Presidency. It owes its name 
to Mahesh-asura, the buffalo -headed demon 
slain by the consent of Siva, the tutelary 
deity of the royal family of the province. In 
the time of the old Mogul rule in the north, 
a brahman of my- permission was given by the court of Aurang- 
zeb to Chikka Deva, the Mysore chief, to hold 
sway alone and to sit on an ivory throne. The greatest native 
fighter, however, of this region was Haidar Ali, who rose from the 
humblest station, filled all India with the fame of his deeds, and 
was the most powerful of all the native chiefs with whom the Eng- 
lish had to contend in their contest for India. He passed rapid- 
ly from one country to another, until he had brought Mysore 
under his dominion. He allied himself with the French, in the 
hope of defeating the English. But the latter, conquering both, 
succeeded in bringing Mysore into subjection. Its present na- 
tive Maharajah is permitted to rule on precisely the same plan 




A BUN INTO MYSORE. 



303 



as the Nizam, farther north, because of the friendly relation of the 
dynasty to the English government during the mutiny of 1857. 

Mysore is distinguished for its immense forests, which have 
long been infested with furious wild beasts. A lady, long resi- 
dent in India, told me that in her childhood her father had a 
coffee plantation here, and the family were often compelled to 
ascend trees at night, where hammocks were swung and other 
precautionary arrangements made for a safe night's lodging, 
because of the dangerous wild beasts. The Macaulay family 
had its representative here. Dr. Macaulay, an uncle of the 
historian, was 
a physician in 
the region, and 
shared with the 
other Anglo-In- 
dians the dan- 
gers and trials 
of the wild life 
of the country. 
Rice thus de- 
scribes one of 
these Mysore 
forests: "Trees 
of the largest 
size stand thick- 
ly together over 
miles, their 
trunks entwin- 
ed with creep- 
ers of huge dimensions, their massive arms decked with a 
thousand bright - blossoming orchids. Birds of rare plumage 
flit from bough to bough ; from the thick woods, which abrupt- 
ly terminate on verdant swards, bison issue forth in the early 
morn and afternoon to browse on the rich herbage, while large 
herds of elk pass rapidly across the hill-sides ; packs of wild clogs 
cross the path, hunting in company, and the tiger is not far off, 
for the warning boom of the great langur monkey is heard from 
the lofty trees. The view from the head of the descent to the 
Falls of Gersoppa is one of the finest pieces of scenery in the 
world." 




ROLLING TEA. 



304 INDIRA. 

There is no better picture of the English transformation in 
India than Mysore presents. As one now rides through Ban- 
galore, for example, he sees the many evidences of a beautiful 
and growing Christian civilization. Large and highly orna- 
mented compounds, in the midst of each a delightful English 
home, surround the entire place. The spaces are broad, as one 
might well imagine, for the site of the entire city. English and 
native, it is thirteen square miles, or about the area of London. 
It stands three thousand feet above the sea-level, and from any 
exposed point the views are very picturesque. 

Bangalore is the centre of a system of very successful mis- 
sionary operations. The Mohammedan population is scanty, 
and the Hindu numbers about ninety-five per cent. The Wes- 
leyan missions are prosperous. I made a call on the Rev. Mr. 
Hudson, the superintendent, and found him a most courteous 
Christian gentleman, thoroughly acquainted with the whole 
field, and wisely adapting his methods to conquer rapidly the 
dying faiths of this polyglot native population. 

The Rev. William Arthur, of England, author of " The Tongue 
of Fire," was in early life a zealous missionary in this country. 
His " Mission to Mysore" is one of the most accurate and suggest- 
ive accounts of Christian work in any land, and has done much 
to reveal to English Christians the need of increased attention 
to missionary operations in India. There is probably no mis- 
sionary now laboring in Mysore who is more successful than 
the Rev. Henry Haigh. I had the pleasure of meeting him just 
before I sailed from Bombay, and conferring with him as to his 
work. He is an eloquent preacher, a cultivated gentleman, and 
is devoted to India as a field for evangelistic work. He was 
good enough to come out to the steamer Siam when I was about 
sailing, and his hand was one of the last I grasped before losing 
sight of the India coast. 

An American Hero. 

Six years ago, while spending a Sunday in the town of Berea, 
Ohio, I made a call upon an aged man and his wife, who lived 
in great simplicity, and who denied themselves a luxurious 
home that they might give their wealth to Christian purposes. 
Yet his generous hand had founded the Baldwin University in 
Berea, had built up the La Teche schools on the banks of the 



A RUN INTO MYSORE. 



305 



Red River, in Louisiana, and here, in Bangalore, had founded 
the beautiful Baldwin schools. Broad is the empire over which 
the generous heart waves its sceptre of fine gold. As I went 
from one room to another of these schools, and saw the children 
who were being moulded into a symmetrical and elevated life by 
their instrumentality, under the care of the Eev. Mr. Richards, 
I could not help thinking of the vast good which the plain man 
of Berea was doing on the other side of the planet. He has 
since gone to his reward, but the harvest from his good deeds 
has only just begun. 

Mr. Richards accompanied me to the large and handsome 
buildings where some of his own students, with many others, 
were about to pass 




their examination for ftF|fj±fI±tf^= 
entrance into the 
Madras University. 
That fine institution 
has arrangements for 
its examinations 
throughout the pres- 
idency and in My- 
sore by which stu- 
dents passing in the 
schools through 
which they have 
gone can enter the 
University without 
further formalities. 

The examination day, December 1, 1884, was a fete day among 
the schools of Bangalore. On entering the large grounds sur- 
rounding the handsome Central School building, young ladies, 
in holiday attire, were promenading among the palms and flow- 
ers. Young men were in groups. All were intent upon the 
coming ordeal. They all had the air of young people who had 
done their work well, and were only waiting for the bell to ring 
them to their desks. The examinations were conducted in writ- 
ing, with a paper for each student. I have before me a copy 
of these papers, which would serve well to stand beside similar 
papers for entrance into any university. Map-drawing, physical 
geography, Indian history, physics, Latin composition, English 
20 



DRYING TEA. 



306 INDIRA. 

history, and other topics had to be treated at sight by the stu- 
dents. Here is a specimen of poetry, " Sunset at Benares," 
which had to be paraphrased : 

" The shades of evening veil the lofty spires 
Of Kasi's gilded shrines ! A twilight haze 
The calm scene shrouds. The weary boatmen raise 
Along the dusky shore their crimson fires, 
That tinge the circling groups. As day retires 
The lone and long-deserted maiden strays 
By Gunga's stream, where float the feeble rays 
Of her pale lamp — but lo ! the light expires ! 
Alas! how cheerless now the mourner's breast, 
For life hath not one charm. Her tears deplore 
The fond youth's early doom, and never more 
Shall Hope's sweet vision yield her spirit rest ! 
The cold wave quenched the flame, an omen dread, 
The maiden dare not question — he is dead." 

I visited a tea-drying establishment, for this is one centre of 
the important tea industry of the whole country. India is con- 
stantly increasing her culture of tea, and the English here re- 
gard it as superior to that of China. The machinery is very 
elaborate, and many hands are employed in the Bangalore 
house. 

The great garden of Bangalore is a very attractive object. 
It covers a great space, and requires a long, time to examine 
any one of its chief departments. One finds nowhere in the 
world, perhaps, such an endless variety of orchids as here. They 
have been caught up in the jungles, brought to this place, and 
developed into exquisite colors. From here they are sent out 
into all lands. The palms, and all the larger and smaller shrub- 
bery known to the endless Indian flora, can be seen here, until 
one wearies at the very wealth of color and perfume. The scent 
of the roses on that December morning burdened the air. In 
this garden there is a department for seeds. Indeed, it is the 
chief point of distribution of flower-seeds throughout India. 
The superintendent was kind enough to place in my hands 
about forty varieties, for distribution to American friends. 

My guide-book had told me that the Maharajah's palace was 
not open to the public. But I had long since learned to take 
nothing for granted in travelling, and I found by experiment 



A RUN INTO MYSORE. 



30T 



here that an application for admission was all that was needed 
to open the front portal and all the halls for a leisurely inspec- 
tion. This is a new building, of great dimensions, and of fine 
architectural proportions. It would be an ornament anywhere 
in London, and would throw Buckingham Palace quite into the 
shade. There are but few traces of Indian furnishing, and none 
of Indian architecture. The native princes are quite in love with 
everything English. Nowadays, when they build a palace and 
furnish it, they forsake Hindu models. The new Bangalore 
palace has carpets from France and England, heavy furniture 
from London, decorations by European artists, and the more 
ornamental furniture from Paris. The outlook from the great 




DESPATCHING TEA BY CART TO THE RAILROAD. 



central tower is broad and enchantingly beautiful. Each of the 
lofty heights in the far distance has its own story of adventure 
and of final English triumph, while the plains below are full of 
the evidences of those fine agricultural operations which the 
English are everywhere introducing into India. The English- 
man in India has solved one problem well — what next to do 
when he has put his sword into its sheath. He has gone to 
work to make the people like himself, and their land like his 
own England. 

The Bangalore Museum is very rich in memorials of the for- 
mer times in Mysore. No attempt has been made to make it 
tell the story of general- Indian history. Here are slabs from 



308 INDIRA. 

ancient palaces, one from Tipu's, in particular, with its twelve 
suggestive Persian distichs. Many of these slabs are of great 
size, and their still perfect carvings make them precious remind- 
ers of times before the Englishman had landed in India. There 
are fine geological specimens, an ornithological department, and 
a most interesting series of industrial products. Among the 
most attractive objects were the great copper plates whereon 
laws and sacred writings had been engraved long before the 
age of books. Nowhere in India did I see such perfect speci- 
mens of the early metallic books of India as here in Bangalore. 

The Old 'Fort. 

The Old Fort, where palace and fortress once stood together, 
is now a complete ruin. Its history is that of old Mysore under 
barbaric native rule. Here are great earthworks ; battered 
walls ; massive towers in decay ; audience-halls, now vacated 
save by the bats, moles, and the intruding tendrils of immense 
creepers ; tanks where the ladies of the court used to while 
away the languid hours in fishing; rickety balconies, where 
kings were wont to sit in state, and were fanned by gayly dressed 
and nodding servants ; banqueting-halls, now silent and filled 
with offensive odors; and, last of all, the prisons where' Tipu 
and his predecessors used to confine their unfortunate criminals, 
while out in front of the largest balcony stretched the broad 
space where the poor unfortunates were executed, as a special 
pastime for the brilliant court. This fort received its fatal 
blow in 1791, when Cornwallis captured both palace and prison. 

There are several beautiful churches in Bangalore. In one 
of them, All-Saints', there are many tablets to officers and to 
members of English families residing in Bangalore. 

The Methodist Episcopal Church has two houses of worship 
in Bangalore. In one of them we held an evening service. After 
the service my friends accompanied me to the train. The next 
morning I came once more in sight of the palms of Madras. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

THE SYRIAN CHRISTIANS IN INDIA. 

Theke are three well-defined stages of evangelization in India.* 
The first was the propagation of the gospel during the apostolic 
period of the Christian Church. The second dates from the 
Portuguese invasion. Only five years after the discovery of 
America by Christopher Columbus, Vasco da Gama, after re- 
ceiving absolution for himself and his crew, as though they were 
all going to die, set sail from the Tagus to find a new way to the 
Indies. Columbus had failed to find a western path ; Yasco da 
Gama would see what he could do towards finding an eastern. 
Ten months afterwards he cast anchor off Calicut, and planted 
the Portuguese flag on Indian soil. This was the beginning of 
the long chapter of the Portuguese in India. The third stage 
of Indian evangelization was in the early part of the eighteenth 
century, and was inaugurated by the Danes in the interest of 
the Protestant Church. This Danish movement was the first 
Protestant mission, not only to India, but to any pagan country. 

There is abundant ground for supposing that the gospel reached 
India during the most primitive period of the Christian Church. 
An early tradition declares that the apostle Thomas founded 
the first society on the coast of Malabar, and was martyred 
at a place called Mailapur. Pantaenus, Dorotheus, Hippolytus, 
Philostorgius, Gregory Nazianzen, Jerome, Theodoret, and Greg- 
ory of Tours, authors covering the period from a.d. 190 to 595, 
attribute the spread of the gospel to India directly to the labors 
of that apostle. This early testimony has later support. Those 
modern travellers to India who long preceded the founding of 
the Jesuit order and the coming of Xavier to Goa declare that 
they found a Christian Church existing on the Coromandel coast, 
and that its members believed Thomas to have been its founder. 

* Hoffmann, "Die Epochen der Kirchengeschichte Indiens," Berlin, 1853. 
20* 



310 INDIRA. 

Marco Polo, in 1220, says that both Christians and Saracens held 
Thomas in great reverence, and made pilgrimages to Maaba, the 
province in which his body was supposed to be interred.* 

In more recent times such careful travellers as Buchanan and 
Bishop Heber favor the view that prevailed throughout the entire 
early period of the Church, and which has a strong support in 
the existing Christian societies, that the apostle Thomas was the 
first preacher of the gospel in the Hindu peninsula. Heber says, 
" I see no good reason for doubting ; there is as fair historical 
evidence as the case requires that Saint Thomas preached the 
gospel in India and was martyred at a place called Mailapur.f 
Buchanan says that " we have as good authority for believing 
that the apostle Thomas died in India as that the apostle Peter 
died in Rome." % 

The most valuable of all authorities for this view is in the 
statement of Professor Wilson, who says that " we need not be 
much at a loss for its identification [Mihilaropya with Mailapur], 
as the name approaches sufficiently to Mihilapur, Meliapura St. 
Thome, where our records indicate a city of some consequence, 
in the beginning of the Christian era, as the scene of the labors 
and martyrdom of Saint Thomas, occurrences very far from in- 
validated by any arguments yet advanced against the truth of 
the tradition." | If one takes all the evidence into considera- 
tion, the balance seems to be in favor of a very early Christian 
Church in India, and of the apostle Thomas as its founder. 
There is nothing improbable in this conclusion. The means of 
locomotion in the time of the Roman Empire were not unfa- 
vorable to long journeys. Life was quite as secure as in recent 
days. Paul was much safer in his journeys through Asia Minor 
than any European traveller would be to-day. When the per- 
secution broke out in Jerusalem, and the Christians were, com- 
pelled to leave, it would not be unreasonable that the apostles 
should distribute the accessible territory among themselves. If 
to Thomas was assigned Persia, it would only be a question of 
months when he could reach there ; and, having organized the 
Persian Church, it would require but a short time to go farther, 

* Book iii., ch. xviii. f " Journal," vol. Hi., p. 212, 4th ed. 

\ " Christian Researches," p. 134, 5th ed. 

|| "Transactions of the Royal Archaeological Society," vol. i., p. 161. 






THE SYRIAN CHRISTIANS IN INDIA. 311 

following the drift of commerce, and come southward to the 
head of the Persian Gulf, and find his way far down the Indian 




SANDSTOKE DOORWAY, MULTAK. 



coast. Such a journey would not be more difficult than Bur- 
ton's in Arabia, or Yambery's in the uplands of Northern Asia, 
or Thomas Coryat's walk, in the seventeenth century, all the 



312 INDIKA. 

way from Jerusalem to Ajmir, and who spent but two pounds 
and ten shillings for the entire journey.* 

Whether Thomas was the founder of the Church in India or 
not, this remains certain— that by the time of the Council of 
JSTicaaa, in the year 325, Christianity had so far advanced as to be 
represented by a bishop in that most important conference of the 
early Church. The name of Johannes, Bishop of India Maxima 
and Persia, stands as one of the subscribers to the Nicene decrees. 

By whomsoever founded, Indian Christianity took the later 
Nestorian type. This was due to its relations with Persia, where 
the monophysite vagary carried the people with it. When the 
Mohammedan faith arose, and Christianity was swept away from 
Persia, the Indian Church was left to fight its battle alone, and 
the fact of the existence of Christianity in India passed away from 
the knowledge of the chroniclers of the Church. It was only 
when travellers of modern times penetrated India, and made re- 
port of what they saw, that the existence of Indian Christians 
became known. Is it any wonder that they should have lost 
nearly all traces of their original character? The real wonder 
is, that they have not been entirely obliterated. 

The condition of the Syrian Christians is very pitiable. They 
are superstitious, and have all the infirmities which have come 
from neglect for fifteen centuries. They have absorbed, uncon- 
sciously, many of the weaknesses of the false faiths which have 
surrounded them. For example, they are firm believers in as- 
trology. An astrologer lives in each village, and a horoscope 
is procured immediately on the occurrence of a birth. Regen- 
eration in baptism is firmly believed. A remarkable fondness 
for Scripture names is entertained — probabty an inheritance 
from the days of the origin of the community. The New Tes- 
tament names are preferred. But many are so altered from their 
original form as to be hardly recognizable. Peter, for instance, 
has become Poonen ; Joshua, Koshi ; Paul, Peili ; Zechariah, 
Tarien ; Alexander, Chandy ; and John, Lohanan.f 

* For an excellent summary of opinions on the apostolic founding of the 
Indian Church, see Kennett's " Thomas the Apostle of India," Madras, 1882. 
There is a unique and excellent bibliography of the subject on pp. 29-32. 
We also recommend, especially, Whitehouse, " Lingerings of Light in a Dark 
Land." London, 1873. 

t Mateer, "Native Life in Travancore," pp. 159, 160. 



CHAPTER XXXIL 

VOYAGE FROM MADRAS TO CALCUTTA. 

There is no direct line of travel along the eastern coast of 
India. The land lies low, and is swept by frequent storms. 
The towns are small, and the industries and products are not 
sufficiently large to warrant the frequent halting of steamers at 
any point. This section alone, of all India, is still largely un- 
changed by modern civilization. The railway line to Calcutta 
runs nearly back to Bombay, and then strikes eastward to the 
terminus at Calcutta. 

I found a comfortable room on the steamer, and several Ameri- 
can passengers. One of the more noticeable gentlemen was the 
brother of the Bishop of Ceylon. I had been informed, in Co- 
lombo, of an amusing incident connected with the bishop's ad- 
ministration. Ceylon, like India, has its State Church Estab- 
lishment — the Church of England. When the present bishop 
entered upon his duties in the Ceylonese diocese he determined 
to limit the pretty active operations of the Church Missionary 
Society, and such other societies of the Church of England as 
ask but few questions of the bishops, but go on zealously with 
their evangelistic operations. The Singhalese bishop, I was told, 
was not pleased with what he saw in his new diocese, and, 
wherever he could, he quietly disposed of some of the parish 
clergymen, and all others who could not be controlled, and he 
put in their places men of his own choice. No little friction 
was excited, but there was no help except in submission. The 
already mooted question of the disestablishment of the State 
Church in Ceylon now received new attention. It was rumored 
that even the governor favored the measure. The bishop was 
alarmed, and called upon the governor, when substantially the 
following brief conversation followed : 

" I understand you are favoring the disestablishment of the 
Church of England in Ceylon," said the worthy bishop. 



314 



INDIKA. 



" Why should it not be done ?" was the laconic reply. 

" Reason enough. Do you not see that many of the older 
parochial incumbents would be thrown out of their livings \ It 
would be a very hard procedure to turn adrift men who have 
been spending many years in the island, and have done import- 
ant service to the Church. It would be unmerciful." 

" Oh, I don't think," responded the governor, " that any large 




BLACK PAGODA, KANARAK. 



class of these worthy people would be affected by the measure. 
You have already gotten rid of very many of them, and those 
remaining are so few that the evil would not be widespread." 

The established Church of India arose out of the ecclesiastical 
arrangements of the East India Company, which supplied a few 
chaplains for important points. Of this number was the im- 



VOYAGE FROM MADRAS TO CALCUTTA. 



315 



mortal Henry Martyn, whose brief but brilliant life has been 
an inspiration for missionary effort throughout the Protestant 
world. Heber, Wilson, and others, who as bishops have represent- 




ed the Church of England in India, were men who combined 
great learning with rare wisdom in the prosecution of their work 
But, for that matter, many of the men who have served as mis' 



316 INDIRA. 

sionaries in India, from whatever Protestant Church they have 
gone, have been examples of superior gifts and heroic endeavor. 

There is a Disestablishment Society in active operation in Cal- 
cutta. This is the outgrowth of a desire on the part of many to see 
the control of the Church by the government terminated. Both 
natives and Europeans belong to it. The movement is the more 
important because, when successful, there will be an end to all gov- 
ernment complicity with the support of heathen temple service. 
Some of the governors-general have shown as much sympathy 
with the various religious bodies operating in India as with the 
Church of England itself . For example, about 1865, when Sir John 
Lawrence was governor-general (1863-69), and was at Simla, the 
summer capital, he saw a few plain Moravian missionaries who were 
at work in Tibet, far to the north, and were in Simla for a short time. 
He inquired carefully into their work, and asked them if they want- 
ed anything. Their answer was, " Candles." By his special order 
he had a great quantity made for them, and sent them to their re- 
mote mission in Tibet, a journey of thirteen days beyond Simla. 

The weather during my voyage to Calcutta was good, and in 
every way favorable to reading and writing. The passage lasted 
four days. When we came in sight of the lowlands at the 
mouth of the Ganges, which here takes the name of the Hugli, 
there was an unusual stir among both sailors and passengers. 
It was a question whether we could pass the bar, and especially 
the "James and Mary" shoals. Posts, on which the state of 
the tide could be seen by registers, gave us little encouragement. 
The fear was, that we should have to wait twelve hours below 
the city before ascending the river. But all would be well if 
we could only cross the " James and Mary." I was told that 
a vessel of the name of James and Mary had once been lost 
here, and had given its name to the bar. But another account 
of the origin is that of Hunter, who says that as in Hindi jal 
means water and mart means fatal, the two words mean the 
fatal water. 

One of the peculiarities of running on these shoals at the 
mouth of the Hugli is, that there is no hope of either the vessel 
or the people in it. The river bottom has the character of a 
quicksand, which, with the rapid current, whirls the vessel bot- 
tom upward. Everything disappears. When the County of 
Stirling was grounded on the Falta Sand, she disappeared in 



VOYAGE FROM MADRAS TO CALCUTTA. 317 

eight minutes. The danger of grounding is all the greater from 
the frequent changes of the channel. The deep water of to-day 
may be shallow to-morrow. Hence the gauges of the tide are 
by no means reliable, except for a brief time. It is usual, when 
there is any fear of grounding, for the sailors to stand ready, 
axes in hand, to cut away the masts and rigging, and use 
other violent expedients to keep the vessel from turning bottom 
upward. I could not view the anxiety of our pilot and the 



MONOLITHS AT KANARAK. 



officers, and the readiness of the sailors for a casualty, without 
a degree of nervousness. There was no attempt on their part to 
conceal the danger of the moment. We crossed the " James and 
Mary" safely, however, but I was told with only an inch to 
spare. 

As you ascend the Hugli there are broad stretches of beauti- 
ful land, rich with the fertile soil brought down from the dis- 



318 INDIKA. 

tant mountains. The currents have left these great patches, 
over which the keels used to plough their way. The plough- 
man still turns up the shanks of wrecked and forgotten vessels. 
This delta of the Ganges spreads out beyond all others in the 
world. It begins to form two hundred miles from the sea, and 
is twice as large as that of the Nile. 

The scene on nearing the dock in Calcutta is lively beyond 
description. Here are England and the East in strange inter- 
mixture. There is a broad space where carriages of all possible 
degrees of excellence and worthlessness are in waiting. The 
Calcutta papers had announced that our steamer was late, and 
would not be up until the next tide, but even this did not pre- 
vent many Anglo-Indians from coming down to greet their 
friends from dear England. My home during my stay in Cal- 
cutta was with the Eev. Dr. (now Bishop) J. M. Thoburn and 
his charming family, who gave me a cordial greeting and made 
every hour of my week beneath their hospitable roof a real 
delight. Here I received fresh news from my family in Geneva 
and a large supply of late American newspapers. 

I was put to work at once. On Saturday morning came a 
lecture, or expository Bible reading, in the church of which the 
Doctor was pastor. But my busy day was on Sunday. If I 
have ever done harder work in one day than on my Sunday in 
Calcutta, I cannot recall it. Christmas was near at hand. First 
of all, at 1 o'clock in the morning, came an address to the Sun- 
day-school. Then, at 8.30, came a sermon in the Dhurrum- 
tolla church, to the immense congregation which attended the 
ministry of Doctor Thoburn. At 4 p.m., I went to the Bengali 
service, Avhich was under the Doctor's general pastoral care. 
At 6.30 I preached again to the Dhurrumtolla congregation, 
and ordained two men to the ministry. At 8.30 I attended the 
Seaman's Bethel, which was one of the Doctor's agencies for 
reaching the large seafaring population of Calcutta. This was 
my fifth service for the day, with the thermometer among the 
nineties. 

In intellectual appearance, in culture, in a profound and breath- 
less interest in every part of the service, I have never seen this 
congregation in the Dhurrumtolla church surpassed. It is a 
busy street through the week— say, like Canal Street in New 
York, or Cheapside in London— and yet people in Calcutta make 



VOYAGE FROM MADRAS TO CALCUTTA. 319 

no question as to where the church is which they wish to at- 
tend. The equipages before the church, at the time of the 
morning service, were so numerous as to make it difficult to 
cross the street from the parsonage. It is only in the United 
States that the drift of population empties a church in the busi- 




ness part of the city. Even in England, nobody cares that Saint 
Paul's is at the very heart of London trade, and that Pater- 
noster Kow empties into the churchyard, and that the entire 
ellipse is filled with small shops. The church is there, and that 



320 INDIKA. 

is enough. It is precisely the same in India. It does not mat- 
ter if the church is in the midst of native houses and petty shops. 
It is the service of which the religious Anglo-Indians think, and 
no questions are asked as to where the church is situated. The 
lesson is one which we, in the United States, should learn, and 
be quick to put into practice. 




SILVER FILIGREE JEWELLERY OP CUTTACK, 



CHAPTEK XXXIII. 

LORD DUFFERIN IN CALCUTTA. 

The city was in great commotion for several days because of 
the approaching public entrance of Lord Dufferin as Governor- 
General of India. The Queen is called Empress ; but such is the 
power of the chief British civil officer that his word is really 
supreme. England rules India, not on the Thames, but on the 
Ganges. 

The Governors-General have been of two classes : those who 




THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL S LEVEE, GOVERNMENT HOUSE, CALCUTTA. 

have sympathized with the natives in their aspirations for a 
measure of self-government, and those who have favored the 
Anglo-British sentiment of keeping a firm hand on the natives, 
and giving the largest measure of power to the central British 
rule. Lord Eipon, who had just been recalled, was the favorite 
of the natives. He had done a great deal to strengthen their 
21 



322 INDIRA. 

hopes for a larger share in the government, and was regarded 
throughout the land as their friend and champion. When he 
was about to leave the country the native population of many 
cities turned out en masse to do him honor. Most flatter- 
ing addresses were made to him, valuable gifts were pre- 
sented, and every mark of high appreciation was bestowed upon 
him. 

I was expecting to find that Lord Ripon's having ceased to be 
a Protestant, and adopting the Roman Catholic faith, had pro- 
duced its effect upon the sympathy of the Protestants of India. 
But such was not the case. 

It was a serious question what kind of a Governor-General Lord 
Dufferin would prove. The natives were distrustful. They 
were going to wait before joining in the general jubilee. The 
British residents, therefore, had the ceremonies in their own 
hands. On the day when Lord Dufferin was publicly received 
I noticed a significant absence of native observers. The streets 
were filled with people. All the balconies along the thorough- 
fares where the procession moved were thronged. Flags, wreaths, 
flowers, and mottoes of every jubilant character ornamented the 
streets and squares. But it was largely the work of the English 
people. The natives were either absent or silent. The Governor- 
General and Lady Dufferin, with their family, were in open ba- 
rouches, while high officers, civil and military,, with a large 
detachment of soldiers as a brilliant escort, moved slowly along 
the chief streets of the city. 

It must be said of Lord Dufferin that all his expressions, in 
the many addresses which he made in various places during the 
early part of his incumbency, were very noncommittal on the 
one absorbing question as to which side he would favor — the 
British or the native. 

The wisdom of the Gladstone government in placing him in 
charge of the British interest in India has never been questioned. 
Lady Dufferin is a model Englishwoman. She has proved her 
sympathy with the suffering natives by special efforts for their 
relief. The family is a model of noble and pure English life. 
In Lord Dufferin' s rule no violence was done to the efforts of all 
Christians to advance the cause of the gospel throughout the 
country. 

I learned in Athens, later, a pleasant fact in illustration of 




«£* — 



LORD DUFFERIN IN CALCUTTA. 



325 



Lord Dufferin's accomplishments as a linguist. Dr. Schliemann 
informed me that he had in his possession a copy of an address 
in modern Greek delivered by Lord Dufferin in Athens, and 
composed by him for an important public occasion. I was as- 
sured that it was delivered by the speaker with great correct- 
ness, and without any help from his manuscript. 




' ; , 'i i i ■ I " 




AFTABA (WATER-VESSEL), COPPER-TINNED, FROM PESHAWUR. 



CHAPTER XXXIY. 

PICTURES OF CALCUTTA, 

I had no little difficulty in securing permission to visit the 
Government House. The American Consul told me plainly that 
he had little hope of obtaining the permit, and I thought him 
disinclined to make even an effort. But a merchant, Mr. Fred. 
W. May, informed me that he believed it possible, and without 
further trouble to the American representative. He invited me 
to accompany him directly thither. We were met at the portal 
by a guard, who promptly gave us permission to enter the ante- 
room. Here a Eurasian member of the household arranged a 
time for us to come again, and receive a reply to our application. 
At four o'clock we returned, and were at once admitted to see 
every part of the palace of the Governor-General. 

The building stands in the midst of a beautiful space, half gar- 
den and half park, of six acres in size. Its foundation was laid 
by Lord Wellington, in 1799. It is of immense size, with great 
colonnades and lofty stepways on each side. Of the general 
proportions of the interior halls and chambers one can easily 
judge from the size of the breakfast-room alone, which is thirty- 
two feet wide and one hundred and fourteen feet long. The 
w T alls are richl} 7 ornamented with portraits, while busts are lodged 
here and there in convenient nooks. The statue of Wellesley, 
who was Governor-General from 1798 to 1805, greets the visitor 
immediately on entering. There are statues and busts of many 
others of the past representatives of English power in India, such 
as Lord Cornwallis, Warren Hastings, Lord Teignmouth, the Earl 
of Minto, the Earl of Ellenborough, Yiscount Hardinge, and the 
Earl of Elgin. 

The Queen's picture is in the throne-room. In the middle of 
this central spot of English power in Asia there is a most signif- 
icant object. It is the gilded chair of the conquered Tipu. Por- 
traits of many native princes of the past days hang upon the 




""•*« I 



PICTURES OF CALCUTTA. 



329 



walls. From one of the windows I saw Lord Dufferin, engaged, 
with a few friends, under the ample fronds of palms, in a lively 
game of lawn-tennis, the favorite game of the English all over 
India. 

The most interesting church in Calcutta is St. Paul's Cathe- 
dral. It is a modern building, begun about fifty years ago, and 
of the Gothic style, with adaptations to the Indian climate. In- 
cluding the buttresses, its length is two hundred and forty-seven 
feet. It stands in the midst of a beautiful lawn, where tropical 
trees and a rich variety of flowering plants make a most charm- 
ing picture. Here, at every step along the nave, are all the evi- 
dences of true English affection on the one hand, and, on the 




EAST GATE, GOVERNMENT HOUSE, CALCUTTA. 



other, of England's undying memory of her sons who have fallen 
in her service under the Indian sky. Memorial tablets, of all 
sizes, and executed with exquisite art, abound on either hand. 
Here are tablets to Sir Henry Lawrence, Bruce, Goodricke, Earl 
Canning — who died in London in 1862, four months after leaving 
India — Agnew, Anderson, and many others. Everywhere one is 
reminded of the sad fate of whole families during the Mutiny. 
For example, here is a tablet to Captain Gowan. His remains, 
with those of his wife and infant son, all butchered by the mu- 
tineers, lie here in a common grave. 

I was greatly interested in the magnificent library of the late 
Bishop Wilson. It is located over the porch, and was presented 



330 



INDIKA. 



by the bishop to the public. But little use, however, seems to 
be made of it now. It is probably open only to members of the 
parish, and must be consulted on the spot. It contains many 
works of general interest, to which few accessions appear to 
have been made in the last two or three decades. It is rich in 
Oriental authorities, and especially in the languages and litera- 
ture pertaining to the country. It is- well classified, and in bind- 
ings and general appearance is the best preserved of any library 
which I saw in India. But all libraries have a hard fate in this 
climate. The white ants burrow into the choicest books, and 
have to be hunted down and destroyed without mercy. They 
honeycomb any literary treasure, and leave it standing a mere 
shell.' They will also nibble off the coloring on the linen covers, 
and leave them as white as before they went to the dyers. I 
brought from India a work, once blue, whose back had been so 
industriously eaten by these insects that it would be difficult to 
tell what had been the original color. The Madras climate is 
most severe of all on books. A gentleman there, who was going 
to leave the country for England, told me that he would not dare 
to leave his books on the shelves, for the dampness alone, in the 
rainy season, would ruin them. The ants would destroy what 
the mildew might spare. He had but one thing to do— pack his 
books in air-tight boxes, and leave them in as dry a spot as he 
could find. In the two bookstores in Madras which I visited I 
noticed that nearly all the works, excepting only the most recent 
arrivals, had been foxed throughout by the all-pervading moisture. 
Bishop Wilson's library is only one of many which one finds 
in India. The English houses abound in rich and rare works. 
At Mackenzie's auction-rooms, in Calcutta, there are often sold 
very rare literary treasures. T wo of these, works of great worth, 
were bought by Mr. Fred. "W. May, and given to me for the library 
of the Drew Theological Seminary. Private libraries have been 
brought over from England with the owners from the early days 
of the East India Company ; and while some have been scattered, 
many remain, and the number is enlarged by new arrivals. The 
Anglo-Indians are readers, and great lovers of -literature. Pub- 
lic libraries are founded which would do honor to a large English 
city. For example, the library of the Bombay Asiatic Society, 
which was founded by Sir James Mackintosh, contains 100,000 
volumes. 




Home of Keshttb Chunder Sen. 

The home of the late Keshub 
Chunder Sen is a centre of great 
interest to every student of the 
revolt of the native Hindu mind 
against the old polythe- 
ism. I found no difficul- 
ty in gaining admission 
to the Lily Cottage. This 
was the residence of Ke- 
shub Chunder Sen, the 
late founder of this most 
recent approach of Hindu 
paganism towards Chris- 
tianity. His son, a hand- 
some and intelligent 
young man, admitted me 
on presentation of my 
card. The Lily Cot- 
tage is a quiet 
and beautiful 
home. An 



BIRD-HOUSE. 



332 INDIRA. 

open sward, all smiling with flowers, surrounds it. In the 
ground floor there is the publishing - house, where the mas- 
ter's books are for sale, and where accounts are kept. The 
printing-office is in a low building, apart from the residence. 
The walls of the hall and stairway are hung with pictures. 
Then, on reaching the second floor, there are still others. They 
had been collected by Keshub Chunder Sen himself, as orna- 
ments to his cottage. Not one among the number showed the 
least sympathy of the seer with the Hindu faiths. They were 
simple engravings, or prints in cheap colors, and all of them the 
outgrowth of Christian thought. Here, for instance, were Cruik- 
shank's familiar engraving of the " Evils of Intemperance ;" an- 
other, of " Sir Joshua Keynolds and his Friends ;" and in the 
middle of the wall of the principal room a picture of Jesus. In 
many places, on the tables and in the corners, were souvenirs 
of travel, which the careful hand and quick eye of the master 
had caught up as adornments for his home. 

On my saying to the son that I supposed the work of his fa- 
' ther would be continued by him, he answered, sorrowfully, " All 
we can do." He led me into the room which Keshub Chunder 
. Sen's mother had occupied, and where she breathed her last. 
The grandson informed me that it was his father's favorite place 
in the house. I might have known it without his telling me ; 
for the Hindu reveres his mother until the day of her death, and 
then she is his patron saint. During life she never ceases to be 
a mother, whatever the station to which her son advances or the 
age which he reaches. When she dies, hers is the only image 
that remains undisturbed for all the years in the innermost sanc- 
tuary of his heart. In a letter written by Keshub Chunder Sen 
to Max Miiller on the death of the latter's mother, he thus speaks 
of a mother : " Who on earth so good as a mother ? We in India 
regard our parents, and especially the mother, as sakshat prat- 
yalshadevata / .... a mother's love who can repay ? A moth- 
er's memory no loyal son can forget. Alive or dead, we honor 
and revere her spirit." * 

The room in which Keshub Chunder Sen died remains just as 
it was when his spirit left its tabernacle. No hand is allowed 
to touch his books or little pocket possessions and trinkets. 

* Max Miiller, " Biographical Essays," p. 145. 



PICTURES OF CALCUTTA. 



335 



Every one of the family who enters must step as carefully as 
though he were entering a holy place. The remains of the mas- 
ter lie in the trim yard, and are guarded by beautiful flowering 
plants. 




A NATIVE BUNGALOW, CALCUTTA. 



CHAPTEE XXXV. 

FORT WILLIAM AND THE BLACK HOLE. 

Foet William formerly stood on the spot where the pres- 
ent post-office building is, but, after the battle of Plassey, 
Clive thought best to remove it to the river-bank. The new 
structure, an irregular octagon, was finished in 1773. It is 
of great strength, and is surrounded on the land side by a 
wide and deep fosse, which can be flooded immediately from 
the Hugli in case of need. The six hundred guns, and ca- 
pacity to hold ten thousand men, make the Fort a most for- 
midable place of defence for the city. In connection with 
it are St. Peter's Church (Church of England), St. Patrick's 
Chapel (Eoman Catholic), the Soldiers' Institution and Garri- 
son School, the Arsenal, and the Military Prison. Since 
Clive's day but little has been needed to preserve the strength 
of this great fortification, except to continue the plan which 
he made. 

Of all the military reminders of the time of Clive, the Black 
Hole is the most memorable. Until very recently, the exact 
site of this place was not known to any one. The very traces 
above ground had been so thoroughly obliterated that noth- 
ing was left on which to base a plausible conjecture. I was 
informed by the postmaster of Calcutta that, in making ex- 
cavations beneath the post-office, in 1882, the masons had come 
across the precise walls which enclosed the famous prison. 
There is now a small square, of dark stone, beside the right- 
hand wall of the post-office, as you stand in front of it, which 
covers the precise spot. There is a monument near by, which, 
including base and obelisk, is forty-seven feet high, and bears 
on one side the names of many of the one hundred and twenty- 
three Englishmen who were suffocated in this wretched place 
on the night of June 20, 1756, and, on the other, the English 



FOET WILLIAM AND THE BLACK HOLE. 



337 



revenge which became the sequel. The latter inscription reads 
as follows : 

" This horrid act of violence was as amply, as deservedly revenged on Sira- 
ju'd Daulah, by His Majesty's arms, under the conduct of Vice- Admiral Wat- 
son and Colonel Clive, Anno 1757." 

Here, on this little spot, was perpetrated the foul crime upon 
innocent Englishmen which awakened Olive's wrath, nerved 
him to make one final effort for English supremacy in India, 
and which resulted in the decisive battle of Plassey. This 
wretched den, the famous Black Hole, was but eighteen feet 
square, with only very small openings for light and air. Only 
twenty-three of the prisoners were found alive the next morning. 




BOATS AT LOW TIDE ON THE HUGLI KIVER. 



22 



CHAPTEE XXXVI. 

A EAJAH'S HOME.— THE BOTANIC GARDENS. 

When I was finishing a busy day, in company with Mr. May, 
we stopped at the house of a rajah, on a side of Calcutta which 
I had not visited before, and quite removed from the English 
residences and places of business. The magnificent home of a' 
native Hindu prince is always a place of interest. The fact 
that such a thing exists, is of itself remarkable. The English 
have had matters their own way, and, like Clive, could easily 
have absorbed all the wealth of the country. On the contrary, 
they have been just and moderate. Many of the native noble 
families are to-day drawing large pensions from the general treas- 
ury. Every now and then one comes across a scion of one of these 
old Indian noble or royal families, whose wealth is very great, and 
seems to have been undiminished by all the political convulsions 
of his country. The English respect for native rights in India 
is one of the most remarkable illustrations of political justice 
in history. It is as far above modern Spain's treatment of her 
colonial possessions, or ancient Rome's procedure in relation to 
her conquered provinces, as Christianity is above and beyond 
either ancient or modern paganism. 

Of this rajah's home in Calcutta, I found no mention in the 
guide-books, and should not have known of its existence but for 
the knowledge which Mr. May had of every part of the city. 
The entrance from the street is large, and unguarded by serv- 
ants. There is a large circular court, with a pond for marine 
fowls and fishes. In the trees there are parrots and other tame 
birds, of gay plumage and in great numbers. In cages there 
are wilder birds, but all rare, lazy, and very beautiful. Os- 
triches and pea-fowls saunter about the grounds in their own 
leisurely way, and with something of an observant air. None 
seemed to be disturbed by our approach. The Hindu kind- 
ness to animals gets them, everywhere, into quiet habits 



A RAJAH'S HOME.— THE BOTANIC GARDENS. 



339 



and a sense of safety. Children are not permitted to disturb 
them. 

Our cards at the door of the great mansion secured us prompt 
admission. The furniture was rich, and mostly in European 
style, but there were some old pieces of elaborate Indian work- 
manship. Marble ornaments, rich floors, finely wrought wain- 
scoting, and tall mirrors were on every hand. The rooms were 
in part in suites, and in part located singly, as quiet nooks for 
conversation and retirement. Some of the larger halls and 
chambers were in process of new decoration. 

In India much of the work of embellishing, and even of the 
more solid decoration in stone, is done by artists who come to 
the house, and 
do not labor 
in the distant 
workshops. 
The marble-cut- 
ters, instead of 
finishing their 
objects aw T ay 
from the house, 
do it on the spot 
where they are 
to be used. It 
is no short task, 
theref ore,to put 
a native house 
in order in In- 
d i a. Wood 
and stone are 
brought to the 
place in the 

rough, and the workmen carry out their plans under the eye of the 
owner of the house. In this rajah's house was all the litter of a 
great Florentine marble workshop, and yet the finished rooms 
were kept as clean and neat as though no chip had ever fallen 
from a block of stone. Here was work going on in fine mosaic, 
the artists, no doubt, having come from Agra for the special 
purpose. Then for the other kinds of stone-work there were 
workmen who had probably come from Italy on the special 




SPINNING. 



340 INDIKA. 

errand, and would only return after many months, or even 
years, when the contract should be completed. There were 
many servants and overseers, some of them clad in picturesque 
Oriental costume. 

The grandson of the rajah, a courtly young gentleman, con- 
versed with us a few minutes, and then withdrew. The intel- 
ligent attendant who had received us at first was in no haste, 
but gave us ample time to examine this immense building, with 
all its appointments, and the surrounding grounds. On leaving 
the place, with its quiet and splendor, and entering again the 
busy native street, it seemed as though I had been in a different 
land, so near are the old and the new in India. 

One thing astonished me — the apparent modesty of the 
wealthy native. If he had an ostentatious spirit, it was hard 
to detect it. He said nothing in praise of his rare birds, or fine 
mosaics, vast halls, or the immense boa-constrictors, which wind 
about or sleep in the meadow behind the close wire fence. He 
simply stood at a distance, or left a servant with us, and only 
bowed his head in acknowledgment of any words of apprecia- 
tion we might say concerning any beautiful or surprising col- 
lection. 

My last day in Calcutta gave me an opportunity to run some 
risk, and to hurry to such an extent as no one ought to think 
of beneath the Indian sky. The ladies of the families of the 
Kev. Dr. Thoburn and Mr. May had arranged for an excursion 
to the Botanical Gardens, on the west bank of the river. The 
ride was a long one, and to return in time to catch the only 
train for Serampore and get back from the latter place on the 
same day was no easy task. But the attempt had to be made. 

These gardens are the finest for botanical purposes in India. 
They were laid out a century ago, and have been superintended 
by accomplished botanists ever since. They cover nearly three 
hundred acres, and abound in all the trees and plants, arranged 
scientifically, known to the tropical climates. Every step is a 
surprise. On entering, an avenue of Palmyra palms runs off to 
the right, while opposite to it is another of mahogany-trees. 
The broad main drive takes one past a group of casuarina-trees, 
up whose trunks are fine specimens of climbing palms, and then 
into the Palmetum, or palm plantation. Then come the won- 
derfully beautiful flower-garden and the orchid-houses. 



A RAJAH'S HOME.— THE BOTANIC GARDENS. 



341 



The road now ascends. Far ahead, where it seemed to termi- 
nate, I observed a tall, wide, and graceful group of what ap- 
peared to be independent trees. My friends said nothing as to 
what the group really was until we were just upon it. They 
had an object, I suppose — to surprise an unwitting stranger. 







A SERPENT-CHARMER. 



It was not many trees, but one, the Great Banyan Tree, or 
Ficus Indica. No banyan in India approaches this one in size. 
Here was a central trunk, fifty-one feet in girth, which had shot 
itself high up into the air, while its branches had drooped to 
the ground and taken root, each one becoming itself a trunk. 



342 INDIRA. 

There are one hundred and seventy of these smaller trunks, 
many of which have grown into large size. The process of culti- 
vating this tendency of the banyan to multiply itself is highly 
interesting. A slender root-like shoot is thrown out from the 
lower side of one of the branches, and grows rapidly downward. 
Its lower end terminates in a small tuft of delicate rootlets, 
ready to strike into the ground as soon as they reach it, but at 
the same time presenting a tempting morsel to any goat which 
may pass under the tree. For the double purpose of protecting 
from the goats the slender stem which is to develop into a huge 
trunk in a few years, and also of encouraging its growth, it is 
encased in hollow bamboo and fastened to the ground. It very 
quickly finds its way down the dark little cavity in the bamboo, 
and when once it becomes rooted in the earth its career is fairly 
begun, and it becomes the one hundred and seventy-first trunk 
in the vast system called the banyan-tree ! 

All the falling leaves of the great banyan had been gathered 
up. Not a waste branch was to be found, and the whole area 
of eight hundred feet in circumference was as clean as a sward 
in the Central Park. One can walk about among these pillars 
without bending his head to escape drooping branches, while 
the arches above consist of as graceful curves as were ever left 
by the hand of Erwin of Steinbach. To reach Serampore, we 
had to drive hastily through the gardens and take the shortest 
road back to the railway station. Now running against heavily 
laden carts, now against a slow-going wagon, and now rubbing 
up against a quiet knot of scantily clad natives, there was no 
telling what would be the result. But our Hindu coachman 
was equal to his task. ~No violent Russian driver could surpass 
him in speed. We reached the train in time, and were now 
gliding along the banks of the Hugli towards Serampore, my 
last excursion in Calcutta. 







Giamcla) 



npoJL. 




yCZJ-- 






;it&^» 







<fcSSN 




XHkhg-^WI; 






—*<?. :sr 




1 'U'liau / ^T 




''< 


fj ~Jj&ffi 


^TJa 


V^V Jl 




si) -J 


c 




■ — ^c^CPs. 




rkaloS [ 




Tillljirf fcej 


;t 






^4 O „.» 






[fljliunga 



5"ip.iis« 



0U 



tfia | 



s& 



$-HAii 



"" *„ QjttaeBrt. Palmyras «^vib? WS\ t 



^V^vA 4 acitw - Fe '?i)j ^-—rf^ 111 *- 
^yio-k^ay 



ZlMME-c 



„ ™r<^X^iA'L 1 \ipROME 
Gvaf| 

■ oUJvr ■/ #*t( I v 



^0T 

* 

?»<• 




85 Xongitude East 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 

POLYGLOT INDIA. 

There are about one hundred and fifty languages and dialects 
spoken by the natives of India ; * but there are seven chief lan- 
guages. These have arisen by a process of crystallization, the 
atoms gravitating into masses. The English is the language of 
the government and of the higher education. The Persian was 
introduced by the Mohammedan conquerors, and is still the lit- 
erary language of all Mohammedans. The Sanskrit is the old 
and classical language of the Brahmans and other Indo- Asians. 
The Baluchi lies beyond the northwest frontier, while the Bur- 
mese dialects are spoken on the east side of the Bay of Bengal, f 

It is difficult to tell where a language in India ends and a 
dialect begins. From every great general language, as a com- 
mon trunk, there have sprung out separate branches which serve 
as dialects. Some of the dialects are mere corruptions, and yet 
are spoken by so many people that they have all the import- 
ance of a separate language. Of the one hundred and fifty 
languages, at least twenty are cultivated and are spoken by many 
millions. The remaining are uncultivated. Of the uncultivated, 
about sixty are spoken in one region alone — namely, the hill 
ranges of Nepal, Bhutan, and Assam. Each range of hills has 

its language, and each valley its dialect. % 

— : 1 _ 

* Beames, in his "Comparative Grammar of the Modern Aryan Languages" 
(p. 107), claims one hundred languages for India, the rest of the tongues being 
dialects. Le Bon declares that if one wishes to be understood in every part 
of India, before he goes thither he must know two hundred and forty lan- 
guages and three hundred dialects ! 

t Caldwell, " The Languages of India, and their Relation to Missionary 
Work," pp. 4, 5. 

\ The best source of information on the native languages of India with 
which we are acquainted is Hodgson, " Essays Relating to Indian Subjects," 
2 vols., London, 1880. 



344 INDIKA. 

These many languages and dialects are due entirely to the 
variety of race. Every great invasion was the signal for foist- 
ing a new language upon the country. It would seem that 
when the invasion was made by an army of mixed race and 
language the result was the introduction of a variety of new 
languages. The amalgamation of these languages with those 
already in India produced in turn new languages, which in time 
assumed a fixed character. 

There are two great linguistic groups : the Aryan and the 
Dra vidian. 

I. The Aryan Languages. — The principal members of this 
group are : 

1. Hindi and Urdu, or Hindustani spoken by 100,000,000 people. 

2. Bengali : " 39,000,000 " 

3. Marathi. " 17,500,000 " 

4. Gujerati " 9,500,000 " 

5. Panjabi " 12,000,000 " 

6. Kashmiri " 1,000,000 " 

7. Sindhi " 2,000,000 " 

8. Oriya " 7,000,000 « 

The Hindustani, or Urdu — that is, Camp Language, the lan- 
guage of the camps of the Mogul emperors at Delhi — is not re- 
garded by philologists as a distinct language, but only as a 
dialect of Hindi with the admixture of Persian. But it has all 
the magnitude and importance of a separate language. It is 
the linguistic result of the Mohammedan invasions of the elev- 
enth and twelfth centuries, and, except in rural Bengal, is spoken 
by many Hindus in North India, and by the Mussulman popu- 
lation in all parts of India. Next to English, it is the official 
language of the government. It is commonly written in the 
Arabic or Persian characters. 

The original Aryan has long ago died out. Its great devel- 
opment was into the Sanskrit, which has disappeared except as 
a dead language. This is the rich storehouse in which the sacred 
writings of the Hindus are to be found, and is reverently studied 
and taught by the Brahman priests. The Hindi and Urdu, or 
Hindustani, is spoken in the Northwest Provinces — Rajputana, 
Panjab, and others ; the Bengali, in lower Bengal ; the Marathi, 
in Bombay and the Dekhan ; the Gujerati, in Gujerat, and also 
serves as the commercial language of all Western India; the 



POLYGLOT LNDIA. 345 

Panjabi, in Panjab; the Kashmiri, in Kashmir; the Sindi, in 
Sind ; and the Oriya, in Orissa. All the languages of this 
group are more or less Sanskrit in structure as well as vocabu- 
lary. 

II The Dravidian languages. — These are the surviving lan- 
guages of the six Dravidian races which lived in the extreme 
southern part of India before the Aryan invasion. * The word 
Dravidah designated the country occupied by them. When the 
region was invaded by the Aryans, the Dravidians proved them- 
selves foemen worthy of their enemies. When they were con- 
quered the languages refused to die, and, as the Anglo-Saxon 
language refused to yield to the Norman tongue, so these Dra- 
vidian languages still live, and are to this day the. speech of 
many millions. 

The four great Dravidian languages are : 

1. Tamil spoken by 15,000,000 people. 

2. Telugu " 16,000,000 " 

3. Kanarese " 9,000,000 " 

4. Malayalam " 4,000,000 " 

The Tamil is the language of the Karnatic, from Madras to 
Cape Comorin, and also of Northern Ceylon. The Telugu is 
spoken in the lower basins of the Kistna and Godavari rivers. 
The Kanarese is the language of Mysore and the contiguous dis- 
tricts northward ; and the Malayalam is spoken in Travancore 
and the rest of the Malabar coast. 

There are two semi-cultivated Dravidian languages : 1. Tulu, 
spoken by 300,000 people ; 2. Kurg, or Kodagu, spoken by 
150,000 people. There are five entirely uncultivated Dravidian 
languages : the G-ond, spoken by about 2,000,000 people ; and 
the four Kolasian languages (Santali, Kol, and others), spoken 
by about 3,000,000 people. 

There are many dialects which it has been difficult to classify. 
The perpetual tendency is now in a double direction, — to discover 
and analyze the language, and then to absorb. The history of 
all nations proves that in proportion as a people acquire unity 
of government the varieties of language undergo a decline. 
Ideas permeate the whole body as never before. The differ- 

* Monier Williams, " Modern India and the Indians." 



346 



INDIKA. 



ences in words and pronunciation observable in the English 
counties are rapidly disappearing by virtue of more frequent 
communication between all the people of Britain than was for- 
merly the case. Since the unification of the German empire 
the long prevailing differences in accent and other departments 
of language between the North and the South have undergone 
a decided diminution. 

In India the same rapid process of compression is going on. 
The hill tribes are brought into more frequent intercourse with 
the great body of the natives, and each language is losing its 
identity by the force of absorption. India abounds in scholars 
from Europe, who are searching at the hearth-stone of the Aryan 
race for the solution of ethnological and philological questions, 
while the missionaries are penetrating the most concealed tribes, 
and constructing grammars and dictionaries for them, and trans- 
lating the Scriptures for their benefit. 




CHAPTER XXXVIII. 



THE BATTLE OF THE ENGLISH WITH THE INDIAN LANGUAGES. 

When the first English trader connected with the East India 
Company arrived in India, he brought with him many words 
already native to the doomed races. The story of kindred blood 
was repeated in the speech. The living roots of the language 
of the native of Britain were found to be not only akin to, but 
identical with, those of the native of India. 

The cradle of both languages was the same. Beside the 
English and the Sanskrit, stood the Zend, which was the early 
language of Persia. To these came the Greek and the Latin. 
Here, therefore, are five languages, which have stretched from 
the Bay of Bengal to the Hebrides, yet all bearing the same 
general features. 

We have only to consult the following table to see the brother- 
hood of these tongues. As the column of English words is of 
pure Saxon origin, it represents the whole Teutonic family : 



Sanskrit. 


Zend. 


Greek. 


Latin. 


English. 


patri 
bharatri 


paitar 
bartar 


patfr 
phratra 


pater 
frater 


father 
brother 


duhitri 


dughdhar 


thugatfr 





daughter 


aswa 


asp a 


hippos 


equus 


horse 


naman 


naman 


onoma 


notnen 


name 


tara 


stare 


astir 


astrum 


star 


upari 
dwi 


upairi 
dwa 


uper 
duo 


super 
duo 


above (upper) 
two 


tris 


thris 


tris 


ter 


thrice 


shat 


khsvas 


ex 


sex 


six 


tishtami 


histami 


histimi 


sto 


stand * 



Look at our English word mouse. Where did it come from? 
Trace the little animal far back, to his original little bed, and 
we find him in a Sanskrit home. The path is easy : in the Old 

* Bopp, " Comparative Grammar." 



348 INDIRA. 

High-German, he was mues ; in the old Slavonic, myse • in the 
Latin, mus ; and in the Sanskrit, mush. 

The Buddhists and the Brahmans have each a favorite theory 
for accounting for the antiquity of the Sanskrit. The latter hold 
that the Sanskrit is the divine language ; that it was never spoken 
by any race before the Brahmans spoke it; and that it is the 
language of intercourse in the crystal palaces of heaven.* The 
Buddhists, on the contrary, claim that the Pali is the original 
language ; that it was the vernacular of the country in which 
Buddha lived ; that their sacred books, the Pitakas, are written 
in this original language ; and that it is sometimes called the 
Ma°udhi. The grammarian Kachchayans thus speaks of it: 
" There is a language which is the root [of all languages] ; men 
and Brahmans spoke it at the commencement of the Kalpa, who 
never before uttered a human accent, and even the supreme 
Buddhas spoke it ; it is Magadhi." 

These theories as to the original language of India are in 
conflict. Neither is correct. Neither the Sanskrit nor the Pali 
is original. Hardy says : " The Buddhist must, therefore, sub- 
mit to the same humiliation as the Brahman, and confess that 
the language of his sacred books is derived, and not original ; 
and that it comes to us from the same source as the dialects 
spoken by the nations of Europe." 

The Brahman is more nearly correct, however, than the Bud- 
dhist. The Sanskrit is older than the Pali, and the latter is re- 
lated to the former as the Italian is to the Latin, and the modern 
Greek to the Greek of Homer. Besides, as Hardy proves, the 
modern forms in Pali are similar to those of Italian. For 
example : 
Latin forms, as modified in Italian. Sanskrit forms, as modified in Pali, 

perfectus becomes perfetto. mvtktas becomes mutto. 

factus " fatto. saktas " satto. 

aptus " atto. suptas " sutto. 

objectus " oggetto. abjas " ajjo. 

somnus " 'sonno. sabdas " saddo. 

The conclusion of Dr. Muir concerning the antiquity of the 
original languages of India appears more nearly correct than 
any other : that the Sanskrit, Zend, Greek, Latin, and Saxon 

* R. Spence Hardy, " The Sacred Books of the Buddhists," pp. 12, 13, 17. 



BATTLE OF THE ENGLISH WITH THE INDIAN LANGUAGES. 349 

are sisters— daughters of one mother, whose name is no longer 
known, and who died in giving them birth ; that the races of 




ON A RIVER STEAMER. 



men speaking these languages are descended from one common 
stock; that their ancestors lived together in some country be- 



350 | INDIKA. 

yond Hindustan, and spoke one original language; that they 
separated at different times and in different directions— the fore- 
fathers of the Hindus southward and southeastward to India ; 
the ancestors of the Persians to the south ; and the ancestors 
of the Teutons to the north of Europe, and those of the Greeks 
and Eomans to the south. Those who remained longest to- 
gether in the early home were the Persians and the Indians, 
and their languages, as well as the people, bear the strongest 
resemblance to each other. 

There is not a more touching piece of romance in all the wild 
legends of the East than we see just here — the coming back of 
a far wanderer to see his long-lost brother. "The dark and 
dreamy Brahman," says Hardy, "and the pale and practical 
European, once chased each other under the shade of the same 
tree, and lived in the same home, and had the same father, and 
spoke to that father in the same language ; and though the dif- 
ference is now great, both in outward appearance and mental 
constitution, not more certainly do the answering crevices in 
the cleft rock tell that they were once united, than the accord- 
ant sound's in the speech of the two races tell that they were 
formerly one people; and this unity is proclaimed every time 
that they address father or mother, or call for the axe, or name 
the tree, or point out the star, or utter numbers." * 

The close connection between the Aryan people and the San- 
skrit language is very clear. The poets of the great epics of 
India regarded themselves as Aryans, and spoke of their heroes 
as Aryans. The very word Arya was used to designate the 
India of remote times— Aria-bhumi or Aria-desa. The Singha- 
lese dictionary preserves it undisturbed : Arya, " noble, excel- 
lent, of respectable lineage." The modern name used in the 
East to designate Persia is Iran, and Hardy ventures the sug- 
gestion that Erin may have derived its name from the still more 
luxuriant East. 

When the Europeans of the sixteenth century entered India, 
and began that career which has resulted in the possession of 
the country by the British, the languages presented a remark- 
able picture. They were divided into the Aryan and the non- 
Aryan. The Aryan group, with the Sanskrit for its basis, was 

* " The Sacred Books of the Buddhists," p. 15. 



BATTLE OF THE ENGLISH WITH THE INDIAN LANGUAGES. 351 

the language of literature and all advanced thought. The non- 
Aryan group consisted of the fragments of the primitive lan- 
guage of the people, before the pale Aryans came down from 
the northwest as conquerors. When the Dutch came to Ceylon, 
the Portuguese to Goa and Bassein, the Danes to Serampore, 
and the English and the French to many points along the east- 
ern coast, there was no difference in the classification. The 
strangers from the West brought with them languages whose 
basis was the same as that of the Aryan tongues of India. The 
English Bible, Shakespeare, and Milton possess the same lin- 
guistic foundation as the Hindu " Mahabharata." In length, the 
Hindu epics are the largest in literature. While the "iEneid" of 
Yirgil contains less than ten thousand lines, and the "Iliad" of 
Homer less than sixteen thousand lines, the " Ramayana " is 
forty-eight thousand lines long, and the "Mahabharata" is con- 
tained in two hundred and twenty thousand lines. 

The Sanskrit language, which was the speech of the Aryan 
ancestors, not only is now a dead language, but was dead two 
thousand years ago. It speaks only through the memorials 
which it treasures in the fundamental parts of the great modern 
tongues. In India it does not occupy as large a place in the 
intellectual life of the people as the Latin does in Europe and 
America. The very science of Sanskrit grammar is recent, for 
Panlni must be reckoned as its father.* The works originally 
written in Sanskrit which have survived the shock of wars and 
the innumerable social convulsions which have swept over India 
are claimed to be not less than ten thousand, f 

One of the most striking proofs of the steady battle of the 
English against all the Indian languages is in the larger use of 
the Roman characters. The constant tendency of missionary 
literature is towards the disuse of the native alphabets. Many 
books are now published without any recognition of the charac- 
ters of the vernacular. This procedure familiarizes the native 
with a Western alphabet ; and this, of itself, is an important step 
towards the abolition of the old language. It is already far more 
common in India to publish, in Roman characters, works in the 

* Crawford, "Researches concerning the Laws, Learning, Commerce, etc., 
of Ancient and Modern India," vol. ii., p. 163. 

f Weber, " Indische Studien," 2 Bde., Berlin, 1850. Especially good in San- 
skrit studies and comparative languages. 



352 INDIRA. 

local languages than in Germany to substitute the Roman char- 
acters for the old Gothic. But sooner or later, in Germany as 
well as in the Eastern countries, it will be a rare occurrence for 
any work to appear in any but the Roman characters. 

The missionaries, however, do not by any means encourage 
this radical transformation. They are , conservative in their 
dealings with native tastes, and introduce as few foreign ele- 
ments as possible. But they know that the change is inevita- 
ble. The second generation of native Christians will probably 
make but little use of the ancient characters. 

The very moment that the Europeans were sufficiently set- 
tled in India to become permanent residents, the fate of many of 
the languages was sealed. Every native language of India is 
entirely on the defensive. The fact that the English language is 
that of the government is the most potent factor in familiarizing 
the natives with it, and in making it attractive to them. The 
English language has been taught in the schools, and to largely 
increasing numbers, for at least a century. From the universities 
there go out annually great numbers of young people, who use 
the English language fluently, having pursued their entire course 
of study in it. Indeed, many of the more highly educated natives 
are growing ashamed of their own languages. The missionary 
literature is, for the most part, in the native tongues. But the 
people know that it consists very largely of translations from 
Christian works, and is printed and distributed by persons speak- 
ing chiefly the English language. Missionaries like Carey and 
Marshman have contributed greatly towards the revival of the 
study of the Sanskrit and other early tongues of India. But this 
has been done for the purpose of understanding languages once 
spoken, to gain light upon the origins of the country and its 
literature, but with no more view to continue the use of a native 
language than did Felton of Harvard aim to revive the actual 
use of Attic Greek when he pressed its study. 

While the few great languages of India will hold sway for 
many years to come, the smaller languages and dialects will 
gradually die out, and leave only the larger. These larger ones 
will then in time lose their hold. 

The India of the great future will speak only the English 
language. 



CHAPTEE XXXIX. 

HUMOES OF THE INDIAN LANGUAGES. 

One of the most striking evidences of the coalescing of the 
languages in Incite can be seen in the many English words which 
the native servants now use instead of the equivalents in their 
own languages. The pronunciation is somewhat astray, but one 
can easily detect the proper English word. There is a large 
class of such English words which the natives use even in con- 
versation with each other in their own vernacular. To such an 
extent has this habit grown, that they do not think of the mixed 
quality of the language which they are using. The English, 
such as it is, flows out with equal ease with the native words. 
The constant tendency is towards an increase of the English, 
and a corresponding decrease of the native tongues. The dis- 
placement of the vernacular is a process now so advanced as to 
be regarded irresistible. 

The following English words, as constantly used and pro- 
nounced by natives, are sufficient to illustrate the large class to 
which they belong. They have been kindly furnished me by 
Mrs. 1ST. Monnelle Mansell : Tcitlee for kettle ; towelee, towel ; 
feoffee (the correct Arabic), coffee ; deesh, dish ; mees, mince ; 
haush, hash ; silput, slipper ; putloon, pantaloon ; foot, coat ; 
buefcus, box ; Marfceen, American ; is-fcule, school ; jografee (this 
is the correct Hindustani), geography ; bufc, book ; nib, pen ; 
tick-us, tax ; boatl, bottle ; is- late, slate ; is-tation, station-depot ; 
post-offeece, post-office ; commeetee, committee. 

On the other hand, there are many words of the native lan- 
guages which, because of their ease in pronunciation, their brev- 
ity, or some peculiar force of meaning, are used by the English 
instead of corresponding words in their own language. If an 
Englishman or American in India has occasion to use the word 
note, referring to a brief open letter, he never fails to say chit. 
I received such an English note one day from a native gentle- 
23 



354 INDIRA. 

man of Calcutta, which closed in these words : " I hope you will 
excuse me for giving you a chit only." He possibly supposed 
that chit was an English word, and might well have drawn that 
inference because of its common use by the English people all 
over India. 

Here is a sentence which exhibits, and I think fairly, the ex- 
tent to which much of the English of India borrows from the 
native Hindustani. It was written by Mrs. Mansell, whom I 
requested to write a brief note, with such admixture of foreign 
words as Europeans in India would use to each other : " I have 
talked with many missionaries about the native Christians. The 
mailal) of their haydn was about this : They are often, perhaps 
usually, very kachchd at first, and many of them remain so for 
years, and indeed always. But many of them are very pdkkd.- 
Our converts are generally in such poverty that it is necessary 
to parwarish them to some extent in giving them naukari, or 
otherwise making their handobast /" The Eev. G. H. McGrew, 
D.D., received one day the following chit — clear enough to him, 
but not to an Occidental not yet in India : 

" Reverend Sir, — Brother H. Wilson wishes the company of yours and 
Mrs. McGrew to be present in the Tamasha of Katputli, and oblige 

" Yours obediently, Maseh Charan." 

If you are sufficiently helped at table, it is not expected that 
you will say, " Thanks, no more," but, "Bas!" If your servant 
is desired to hurry, you call to him, " Jaldi /" If you wish a 
school-boy to keep quiet, you say, " Chup." If you wish a car- 
riage, you order a " gdri." When one is pleased with any re- 
sult, and would naturally say, " All right," in India approval is 
expressed by one word, " Thih" You would hardly say " thing," 
but simply " chiz." Instead of talking about a suit of clothing, 
you would simply say " Jcaprd." You are no sooner in Suez, 
or even on a Peninsular and Oriental steamer just leaving Lon- 
don for an Indian port, than the regular midday meal is called 
" tiffin." It comes from the Portuguese, but is now already do- 
mesticated in the English language. Everywhere one knows 
the word almaira to indicate a closet or clothes-press. The word 
" go-down " is a corruption of a Portuguese word, goddm, mean- 
ing storehouse or magazine. It is a very familiar word, and is 
heard throughout India, alike from natives and Indo-Europeans. 



HUMORS OF THE INDIAN LANGUAGES. 355 

Any stranger in India, who goes through the country on even 
a very hasty tour, finds himself constantly absorbing these con- 
venient words. By the time he is ready to leave the country, 
they have become familiar to him, and he uses them even in 
preference to his English, French, or German. 

The native in India, when conversing or corresponding with 
a European, is generally quite able to make his English clear. It 
may not be idiomatic, but serves its purpose notwithstanding. 
Here is a note which Miss Lore, then a medical missionary, re- 
ceived from an anxious patient : " Please send per bearer the 
powder for Kobert, and the medicine for me as you promised. 
Also write the directions. Not only my heart palpitates, but 
the appetite is poor. No proper indigestion — and sleeplessness — 
and all these things are very troublesome." 

There is another side to this picture — namely, the blunders 
constantly made b} 7 the English in their use of the Indian 
tongues. We hear but little of them. The natives hear them, 
but the blunders do not see the printed page. Only now and 
then they come to light. For example, Rev. N. L. Rocky re- 
ports the following : Mrs. Blank to-day asked her husband to 
send the servant to her. So he gave the order : " The madam 
is a necessity to you. Go." Another, an invalid, was advised 
to use strong beef -tea. Here is his order to the cook : " Here, 
cook, get a powerful ox and make me tea from it." What must 
the servant have thought on receiving such an order \ 



CHAPTEK XL. 

THE AGONIES OF ENGLISH STYLE. 

One is constantly reminded, when hearing cultivated natives 
converse in English, of the stately and ponderous rhetoric 
which they employ. It is easy to imagine one's self sitting 
with Johnson in " The Cheese," off the Strand, and hearing 
him dilate to Goldsmith on the completion of the last signature 
of the great Dictionary. The words are devoid of the new 
touches of the present century. The masters of a century, or 
even of two centuries ago, have supplied the natives with a large 
measure of their vocabulary. Pope is still a favorite. Long 
since, when the first English schools were established in India, 
the ruling models in style at the time were promptly inaugu- 
rated in India. In some cases, these have continued to the 
present time. A writer in Macmillan's Magazine thus reports 
his conclusions when present at an examination of a govern- 
ment English school in Bengal : " The class was engaged on 
' The Deserted Village.' Each scholar read a few lines, and 
then gave a paraphrase of them in the most grandiloquent and 
classical English. I sat aghast at the flowing combination of 
epithets which came so naturally to their lips ; not knowing at 
the time that the natives who have been brought up at the gov- 
ernment schools, having learned our language from Addison and 
Goldsmith, use on all occasions the literary English of the last 
century. The passage before us was that beginning, 

" 111 fares the land to hastening ills a prey." 

One youth at the bottom of the class, on being asked for 
a- definition of what Goldsmith meant by unwieldy wealth, 
amused me by replying, ' Dazzling jewels, and plenty — too much 
elephants !' " Woodrow holds that the ignorance of passing 
events in Europe, on the part of government teachers in India, 



TEE AGONIES OF ENGLISH STYLE. 



357 




GOING HOME FROM THE BALL. 

is very great. He says that the Europe which they know is 
only the Europe of Addison and Goldsmith.* 

An Odd Book. 
I cannot furnish a more characteristic evidence of the difficul-* 
ties of the natives in dealing with the English language than in 
the following extracts from " The Memoir of Onoocool Chunder 
Mookerjee, by his admiring nephew Mohindronauth Mookerjee," 
the second edition of which was published in Calcutta in 1876. 
The author, it may be said, is a teacher of history in the Sham- 
bazar High-Grade English School, and author of " The Effects 
of English Education upon the Native Mind." 

" Let me hold my Penna after a few months to write the memoir of the 
individual above-named: but quid agis? if any one put me such a query, I 
will be utterly thrown into a great jeopardy and hurley-burley. * * * 

" By dint of nude energy and perseverance he erected a vantage ground 
above the common level of his countrymen ; nay stood with the rare, barring 
few on the same level with him, and sat arrayed in majestic glory, viewing 
with unparalleled and mute rapture his friends and admirers lifting up their 
hands with heartfelt glee and laudation for his success in life.* * * 

.* " Bengal Instruction Report," 1855-56, Appendix A, p. 50. 



358 INDIKA. 

" It was the bonton to carry that study much beyond the point which would 
have sufficed for the purpose of business or official intercourse. * * * 

" In the course of two years from the inchoation of his Persian education, 
he was able to read such books as Alif Lyala, Fasana-Ajahib, Galbasanaoor, 
Hate?ntaie, Bagabahar, Qolistan. * * * Shall I uot, therefore, be justified to say 
on the strength of the suprastatemeut, that it was undoubtedly a sign of be- 
coming great, and that little Mookerjee was a genius undoubtedly, though 
he did not show anything supernatural in his college life ? * * * 

" I have heard from a gentleman who was one of his form-fellows that little 
Mookerjee never had a snip-snap with any of his college boys. * * * 

" It is well known that boys cannot bear the sight of any one of them sit- 
ting still or busy with his books when they themselves are to jump over the 
moon. * * * 

" But this singular sheepishness — so ungraceful in a boy — endeared little 
Mookerjee to all his teachers. * * * 

"The progress made by little Mookerjee at school, though not very gairish, 
was nevertheless of a most solid character. * * * 

"When the Lad ascended a few steps, he received a severe blow on his 
head, which rendered him impercipient for a few moments. * * * 

" His father died when he was very young, and the large estate, which he 
had bequeathed to his children, was gradually squandered away by his eldest 
brother in unfortunate blind bargains and speculations. * * * 

" There are innumerable examples of children possessed of competent means 
for education remaining beetle-headed for ever. * * * 

" His education was not imperfect, nor of an ordinary nature, but what is 
optable in every enlightened age. * * * 

"Each, as he left the magistracy, gave him a certificate testifying to the 
excellence of his character and his cui bono in the post he held. * * * 

"He therefore felt himself planet-struck when Hurrish Chunder, after mak- 
ing mention of the Howrah Nazirship, requested him to provide Onoocool 
Chunder with a better employment. * * * 

" None can be great Impromptu ! * * * 

" His determination surmounted every difficulty, for omnia vincit labor. * * * 

" It is impossible to describe the oblectation with which he contemplated 
this change in his position. * * * 

" The product of the system of patronage winch must have benefited the late 
Justice in no ordinary quantum in the early part of his career as a Vakeel. * * * 

"It was thus that Ouoocool Chunder soon gained the plerophory of the 
Mooktears. * * * 

" His first business, on making an income, was to extricate his family from the 
difficulties in which it had been lately enwrapped, and to restore happiness 
and sunshine to those sweet and well-beloved faces on which he had not seen 
the soft and fascinating beams of a simper for many a grim-visaged year. * * * 

"At this time Onoocool Chunder's study embraced the deep and awful hour 
of midnight. * * * 

" Wealth rather served to bring into full play qualities of heart which 
poverty had either wholly or partially kept snug. * * * 



THE AGONIES OF ENGLISH STYLE. 359 

" Tempus edax rerum, and on Sunday, the 5th of June 1864, Judge Onoocool 
Chunder's mother ' shuffled off this mortal coil.' * * * 

" Onoocool Chunder celebrated his mother's slirad with an ungrudging heart. 

"Mookerjee feared that if Mr. Ghose opens the case first, he might play the 
deuce with it. * * * 

"He argued this question, with capacious, strong, and laudable ratiocina- 
tion and eloquence. * * * 

" The Hon'ble Mookerjee did nill the offer politely. * * * 

"No client would solely rely on their cui bono. * * * 

" Now Hon'ble Mookerjee was once again thrown into the peck of 
troubles. * * * 

" He was attacked with a doloriferous boil which was operated by Dr. Nil- 
madhub Mookerjee (his family Doctor and kith and kin). * * * 

" He remained with his family and felt himself much emendatory in his 
health. * * * 

" This was the first time (and in the case of the Hon'ble Mookerjee), that 
we see a Pleader of the High Court taking a seat in the Bengal Legislative 
Council, solely by the dint of his own legal weapon and he was an aufait, and 
therefore undoubtedly a transcendental lucre to the Council. * * * 

" The selection in Justice Mookerjee was most judicious and tip-top. * * * 

" He rose step by step to the ne plus ultra of fame and distinction, to the 
amazedness of the public at large, and men of his profession. * * * 

" The hope which he so long hatched at last yielded him what he hankered 
after, and in seven league boots, 'True hope is swift and flies with swallows' 
wings' — and he might have justly said — Veni, vidi, vici! The law-study to 
which he had devoted so long his midnight hours, with indefatigable ardour 
and the zeal of a martyr, yielded him fruits most sacchariferous and wished 
for — position, respect, and wealth. * * * • 

" Since he joined the Native Bar down adfinem of his career as a Pleader, 
he had one and uniform way of pleading. He made no gairish of words, never 
made his sentences long, when he could express his thoughts in small ones. 
He never made his sentences periphrastic when he could do it in an easy 
way. He was an eloquent speaker, but made no raree-show of it. Never he 
counterchanged strong words with the Pleaders or Barristers of the other 
party. In defeating or conducting a case, his temper was never incalescent 
and hazy. He well understood the interest of his client, and never ceased to 
tussle for it until he was flushed with success, or until the shafts of his argu- 
ments made his quiver void. He was never seen to illude or trespass upon 
the time of the Court with fiddle-faddle arguments, to prove his wits going 
a-wool-gathering, but what he said was nude truth, based upon jus civile, lex 
non scripta, lex scripta, etc., and relative to his case and in homogenity to the 
subject-matter lie discussed, and always true to the points he argued. 

" Having first expounded before the Court the anatomy of his case, he then 
launched out on the relative position of his client with that of the other, point- 
ing out the quid pro quo or bolstering up the decision of the Lower Court with 
his sapience and legal acumen and cognoscence, waiting with quietude to see 
which side the Court takes in favourable consideration, knuckling to the ar- 



360 INDIEA. 

guments of the Court, and then inducing it gradually to his favour, giving 
thereby no offence to the Court. Justice Mookerjee very well understood the 
boot of his client, for which he would carry a logomachy as if his wheel of 
fortune depended upon it. * * * 

" An uuparagoned gentleman he was. * * * 

" On multitudinous occasions when the hope and affiance of the clients of 
Justice Mookerjee toto coelo suspended on his pleading, and he was absent 
from the Court on account of some sickishness, he even on such days came 
and pleaded their causes when they importuned him to do so. 

" Of all the learned walks of life that of a Pleader or a Barrister is the most 
difficult to win laurels in. A Doctor with his badge and his braggardism for 
profoundity in Pathology, ^Etiology, Nosology, Materia Medica, Regimen, 
Chirurgery, Surgery, Toxicology, Chemistry, Alchymy, Zoology, Zoography, 
Anatomy, Comparative Anatomy, Comparative Physiology, or any logy that 
exists in the category of Science (but I should never finish this memoir, and 
you would feel yourself worried, if I were to attempt to tell you all of them, 
it will be quantum svffictt to say that boldly), can give cremation, sepul- 
ture, etc., to as many number of men as he likes, and at the same time can 
fill his coffer — a Civil Servant is as sure of getting his desired object as soon 
as he passes his examination — and pseudo is the engineer. * * * 

" What Mooktear should volunteer to allow him to send up a pilot bal- 
loon ? * * * 

" If at the persuasion of a tried Pleader, a Mooktear gives him a case, and 
if unfortunately he loses it, he is at a discount, or fortunately if he wins it, he 
is valeat quantum valere potest as the Mooktear thinks : and lack-a-daisy ! — 
a Mooktear has so much to do with such a profession ! But in additum to 
this, there are other Gordian knots — such as if he is an obtuse, and has an in- 
audible vo(§, a blunt memory, a beetle-head, or if he is hot-headed, a stutter- 
ing speaker, and irrespective of other things that mainly and importantly 
stand in requisition to constitute one as veritable Advocate in the accurate 
sense of the expression. * * * 

" His elevation created a catholic ravishment throughout the domain under 
the benign and fostering sceptre of great Albion. His friends — (for persons 
were sure to be his friend with whom he had talked for a few moments), 
hailed this budget of news with heart-felt and infinite joy. 

" The Hon'ble Mookerjee did bleed freely, but he was not a leviathan on 
the ocean of liberality, nor he was a Hatem or a Bolee of his age, but on — 
whose like we may and should expect in an individual of his status and emolu- 
ment : and the mode of assignment of his charities was to such men, as we 
truly wish and recommend, and exsuscitate enthusiastically. He used to give 
monthly something of his Oooroo or (spiritual guide), for the support of his 
family — to his Poorohit apart from what he used to get in every Purbun, — to 
four Bramins who remained at his house and had no other source of income — 
to many of his ignorant kinsfolks whom he would not suffer to drudge in an 
humble sphere — to many relicts who had no hobbardy-hoy even to support 
them, and had no other source of sustenance left to them by their consort — 
and to many unfriended and helpless children to countenance them to tread 



THE AGONIES OF ENGLISH STYLE. 361 

the path of education in Medical and other Colleges and Schools : These 
were his regular and peremptory or tranchant menstrual distribution, which 
they do get still after his demise from his sons, who have been submonished 
by him on many occasions to do so. * * * 

" There are many Bramins now, who, after Laving perpetrated heaps of the 
lowest dregs of vice, would go and bathe once in the Ganges and then nur- 
ture the thought — that they are now saintlike, and thus having a faith in that 
stream, as the one having the power to absterse one's heart from sin, they will 
go on committing sin till they pop off, or till their doomsday. * * * 

" He knew that vice should be met with punition, and virtue with guerdon. 

" Once for the same unsociable conduct or rather insouciance he having 
received a vituperation from his cousin Baboo Gopal Chunder, for not re- 
ceiving his friends with those tilings, when his friends were sitting engaged 
in tittle-tattle with him for more than an hour. * * * 

" When a boy he was filamentous, but gradually in the course of time he 
became plump as a partridge, and so much so, that he weighed himself two 
tnaunds and three and half seers on Monday the 10th of April 1871, and many 
able doctors said that he will very soon be caught by palsy ; but to put him 
on guard it Was required that he should take some physical exercise, — ■ 
which he used to do since that time. He was neither a Brobdignagian nor 
a Liliputian, but a man of mediocre size, fair complexion, well shaped nose, 
hazel eyes and ears well proportioned to the face, which was of a little round 
cut with a wide front and rubiform lips. He had moulded arms and legs, 
and the palms of his hands and feet were very small and thick with their 
proportionate fingers. His head was large, it had very thin hairs on it; and 
he had a moustache not close set, and a little brownish on the top of his 
upper lip. 

" Even on going to see a Nautch or something of the like, I have never 
seen him in a dress fine as a carrot fresh scraped, but esto perpetuum in Pan- 
taloon and in satin or broad-cloth Ohapkan, with a Toopee well quadrate to 
the dress. But for the last two or three years he was constrained to veer his 
national Dhootee, even when at home, for Pantaloon, and this is ascribable 
simply to the fattening of his belly, to suppress which and to guard against 
further corpulence, on being advised by his doctor. * * * 

" Which will cause him to be absent from the Bench for that day,— and who 
knew the Everness ! * * * 

" All the well-known doctors of Calcutta that could be procured for a man 
of his position and wealth were brought, — Doctors Payne, Fayrer, and Nil- 
madhub Mookerjee and others : they did what they could do, with their puis- 
sance and knack of medical knowledge, but it proved after all as if to milk 
the ram ! His wife and children had not the mournful consolation to hear 
his last words, he remained sotto voce for a few hours. * * * 

" The body was removed, and consumed to ashes according to our Hindoo 
rites and ceremonies. The house presented a second Babel or a pretty kettle 
of fish. The night came on, and with its gradual advance, all cry of sorrow 
was hushed in the house, and every one therein was at last buried in deep 
slumber, being made weary with weeping and wailing. Now, my dear reader, 



362 INDIRA. 

give a loose to your fancy — what ghastly aspect the house presented! It was 
as if dreary and desolated but for a man. The hall, which was decorated most 
tastefully with paintings and valuable articles of furniture, which made it an 
object of gaze a few hours ago, was most harrowing to the sight, being de- 
prived of its legitimate ornament — the presence of that individual from whom 
it desumed its beauty. But where is he — the Hyperion of his house — the 
pride of his countrymen — and an object of love and admiration to his friends ? 
He is gone — and gone forever from this world ! The grim and inexorable 
death (as we say) has taken him in an evil hour and caused a great bereave- 
ment to our country ! But lias death any preponderance over such a great and 
good man ? Yea I know it has ! * * * 

" What becomes of this spiritual is a pons asinorum. * * * 
" When the Hon'ble Onoocool Chunder Mookerjee left this earth, all wept 
for him, and whole Bengal was in lachrymation — and more I shall say, that, 
even the learned Judges of the High Court heaved sighs and closed it on its 
Appellate and Original Sides." * 

A native student of the Madras University handed in to C. 
M. Barrow, Esq., the Principal of Doveton College, an exami- 
nation paper which contained the following definitions of vice 
and beauty : 

" Vice. Whatever may be the vices, they still have outwardly some mark 
of virtue. 

"Beauty. Some girls buy the powder at bazaar to rub their faces with it, so 
that they may look more beautiful. By so doing, old men also appear young, 
which is a work of miracle in nature, and those who desire to be beautiful 
wore curled, snaky hair of another woman who is dead. They who wear most 
of it are heavy physically and morally light." 

The same student gave the following definitions of Greek 
characters : 

" Nestor : One of the Greek historians who followed the Greeks to Troy 
during the Trojan war. He is a serious man. 

"Alcides: The patronymic name of Hercules, who says that he may be 
beaten by his page if they were to play at dice. 

"Erebus: The god of the lower regions, who allowed the wife of Orpheus 
to get out of hell, being induced by his singing." 

* The difficulty of getting a copy of the rare little work from which the 
above extracts have been derived has been very great. The Rev. Dr. Rudisill, 
of Madras, could only get a sight, of it, and was good enough to send me some 
extracts. But the book still remained a necessity to me. Dr. Harvey, of Cal- 
cutta, had the good fortune to get one. This he sent to Mrs. Cyrus W. Field, 
of New York, who in turn placed it in the hands of a mutual friend, Rear- 
Aclmiral D. B. Harmony, of Washington, through whose favor I have been 
able to make the above selections. 



THE AGONIES OF ENGLISH STYLE. 363 

The Eev. A. D. Rowe reports the following questions and 
answers given in an examination : 

" Question. What is a ' dapper man ' ? 

Answer 1. A man of superfluous knowledge. 

Answer 2. A madman. 
Question. What is a democrat ? 

Answer 1. Petticoat government. 

Answer 2. Witchcraft. 

Answer 3. Half turning of the horse. 
Question. Define ' Babylonish jargon.' 

Answer 1. A vessel made in Babylon. 

Answer 2. A kind of drink made in Jerusalem. 

Answer 3. A kind of coat worn by Babylonians. 
Question. What is meant by a Lay Brother ? 

Answer 1. A Bishop. 

Answer 2. A step-brother. 

Answer 3. A scholar of the same godfather. 
Question. Define the expression, Sumpter mule. 

Answer. A stubborn Jew. 
Question. What is a bilious-looking fellow ? 

Answer 1. A man of strict character. 

Answer 2. A person having a nose like the bill of an ea°-le." 

A candidate for examination writes, asking for marks high 
enough for him to pass : 

" To the Humane Examiner : 

" Sir,— Knowing that I shall be plucked in this branch, I am writing an appli- 
cation to show your favor to me. I am a poor man, son of a poor family. 
But you may say, that as I have not worked every particular sum, how can I 
show favor towards you ? But the reasons. I have passed in the three other 
days ; and I know not why I cannot work these sums ; perhaps God is on my 
opposite side, or my fortune is bad. If you give me ten marks then that will 
be sufficient for me. If you do not show me this favor I shall lose my whole 
year. You see distribute pice (money) to poor which is of great labor- but 
this is of very petty labor, so give me the above-mentioned marks. 

" From your most obedient servant."* 

The old Persian teacher of the Rev. Mr. Rocky, a missionary 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, wrote the following sym- 
pathetic letter to his clerical pupil, who was suffering from 
rheumatism : 

" To Rev. Rocky, Clergyman of Bijnor : 

" Sir, — It gives me anything but great sorrow to hear that you were stricken 

* Wilkins, "Daily Life and Work in India," p. 44. 



364 



INDIRA. 



with palsy. I, praying to God and attending to the Sunday-school, wish your 
sound health and your visit to Bijnor again with welfare. I also pray that . . . 
may give you a perfect health ; and may you with your family live long with 
prosperity. 

" M. Sham Lai and I are praying for the enjoyment of your family ; attend 
to your school from ten o'clock to three. The number of the students is fifty, 
but the average of daily presence is forty. 

" I most respectfully beg to state that you will be good enough to inform me 
of your welfare, together with your family's, and the state of sickness whether 
there is somewhat slightness or not. With kind regard to Mrs. Kocky and 
good love to the young clergyman. 

" Awaiting for a sooner reply. 

" I have the honor to be, sir, your most obedient servant, 

" F'azl Ilahi. 

" Dated, 1st January, 188V 

The envelope was addressed in Urdu character, in all the flat- 
tery and prolixity of the truly Oriental style : 

" To the destination Lucknow, to Padre Sahib the missionary having gone 
or to the home of the minister Lucknow in the presence of the treasurer of 
generosities, Honorable and Rev. Mr. Rocky, most worthy, may he ever be 
blessed, let this letter arrive and if the Rev. Sir may not be in Lucknow, then 
may it go to. the presence of Mrs. R., and if both^may not be in Lucknow, then 
to the destination Moradabad to the assembly of ministers in the presence of 
his Reverend Sir Mr. Rocky let it be delivered. An answer is urgently re- 
quired." 

Here is a letter received by the Rev. A. D. Rowe from an 
admiring native : 

" Most Honorable Reverend,— 1 hear that you are high and noble man, and 
there are none but you. As I am ahvays engaged in business, I never made 
your honor's visitation. 

" I pray your honor regarding a thing, viz. : My priest came from Trichinop- 
oli, that is to say Sreerangam. If your honor please favor me your kindness. 
I shall be obliged to request you. My Priest is richest. The people say by 
usage that he is born to God, and also that he is the Son of God! He will 
not return to Guntoor until thirty years ; but I cannot sure say that I can alive 
until he comes. My main prayer is to only photograph him upon the photo- 
graph. If your honor allow me to come to your presence, I shall be obliged 
to come to your presence. I request you only this assistance but none other. 
" Your most obedient scholar, M. V. R * * * * 

"17th March, 1875." 

The following is from a faithful Madras servant to his master 
and mistress, temporarily absent from home : 

" Honored Sir and Madam, — Rather I have good news to inform you, Sir, 



THE AGONIES OF ENGLISH STYLE. 365 

that your shee-goat Nany brought forth two babes last evening ; one is male 
and the other is female ; one is the black and the other is a -white-spotted 
one; so I am trying my best to take care of them taking much pains from the 
dangers come to happen, that is the neighboring dogs and guanas frequently 
come to devour them, which is prevented by my lovely attendance and sleep- 
ing near them at night. Sir, please give the information of this intelligence 
to Madam." * 

I have been kindly favored by Brigade Surgeon Robert Harvey, 
M.D., Professor in the Medical College of Bengal (Calcutta), 
with the following additional specimens of the native use of the 
English language : 

When Sir Mahadar Rao addressed the little boys of the Eng- 
lish school at Indore, after descanting on the full advantages of 
obtaining an English education, and on the treasures of Euro- 
pean civilization, and reminding them that they were heirs to 
traditions and philosophies old before England was heard of, 
he gave this piece of advice to the little fellows: "Equally 
avoid the iconoclastic impulses of unbridled speculation, and a 
blind idolatry of a superannuated order of things !" 

A Bengali, being rudely jostled by an Englishman at a rail- 
way station, used this indignant remonstrance, "Is this your 
vaunted English jurisprudence?" 

The following question in English history was asked in an 
examination paper : " Who was Cromwell ?" The answer was : 
" Cromwell was a bad man who slew his king with repeated be- 
headings, and on his deathbed was heard to exclaim, ' Oh, Crom- 
well! Cromwell! had I but served my God as I served my 
king, he would not have deserted me in my gray hairs.' " 

In ethnology this question was laid before a student : " Who 
are the Bhils?" (an aboriginal tribe in Rajputana, very tur- 
bulent, mostly armed with bows and arrows). Answer. " The 
Bhil is a black man, only not so hairy. He carries archers about, 
with him, with which he shoots his enemy and throws him in 
the ditch. By this you may know the Bhil." 

In geography, a question was : " What are the chief feeders 
of the Brahmaputra ?" The answer proved to be from another 
department than geography, but was, nevertheless, correct m its 
way : " Alligators !" 

In justice to the natives of India, it must be remembered that 

* Our Youth, No. 90, p. 189. 






366 



INDIKA. 



in English schools, in both England and the United States, we 
have frequent evidences of the deplorable results of teaching, or, 
possibly, of the original infirmity of the pupil. "When one takes 
into account the short time the Hindu has been at work at the 
English language, and the difficulties he has had to meet in mas- 
tering it, his success has been satisfactory. If he has gone to 
our classics of the eighteenth century, we must not criticise him 
too severely. His intimate acquaintance with English slang 
proves him to have kept wide awake. Some of the Hindu 
authors have acquired an excellent style. The apostles of the 
Somajes have written as though on the Thames or the Back 
Bay. Their opponents have met them with weapons equally 
polished. Ram Chandra Bose's " Brahmanism " is a clear and 
strong expose of the emptiness of all Hindu substitutes for 
Christianity. 

The educated Hindu is getting familiar with the charge that 
his style is stiff, Johnsonian, ponderous. But he is not disturbed 
by it. He adheres to his literary divinities. When Mr. Bose 
was in the United States, in 1884, his attention was called to 
the somewhat stately idiom which he sometimes used in ordi- 
nary conversation. " In England and America," he answered, 
" you learn English from your servants and children in the street, 
but in India we get our English from the pages of Addison and 
Johnson." 




WESTERN ENTRANCE OP FORT GEORGE, MADRAS. 



CHAPTER XLL 

EDUCATION. 

How England would deal with old civilizations, and how she 
would adapt her own educational methods to the exigencies of 
the many millions of India, was an important question. Her 
relation to that land was entirely different from that to any other. 
Elsewhere, as in America and Australia, she had to begin from 
nothing. The people whom she found were aborigines, and had 
done nothing for themselves or the world. But when she be- 
came ruler of India she had a different task. She found a land 
where arts and sciences had thriven for many ages. The keenest 
dialectics had been practised in the far-famed University of Ma- 
dura, while the astronomical calculations of the savans of Delhi 
could well take their place beside the triumphs of Western physi- 
cists. There is no astronomical ruin in the world which equals 
in grandeur the masonr}^ of the old Observatory which one 
passes on the road from new to old Delhi. /The architectural 
triumphs of ancient India deserve to stand beside the Panthe- 
on in many of the fundamental principles of pure style. The 
great national epics of the Ramayana and Mahabharata belong 
to the same Aryan family as the Iliad. The grammar of Panini 
is a triumph of philological skill. Few prime-ministers of West- 
ern kings have done such service to their nations as did the Em- 
peror Akbar's Brahman premier, who not only wrote the " Ayin 
Akbarry," but regenerated the finances of the Mogul empire.* 

The East India Company was purely a trading association. 
But so numerous were its agents that a domestic and social 
life sprang up in due time. It was not a colony, but a popu- 
lation. The proportion to the natives was small, but it was the 
small number which carried mastery with it. Trade, however, 

* Laing, "Lecture on Ind-European Languages and Races, 1 ' quoted from 
"Indian Year-Book," 1862, p. 116. 



368 INDIKA. 

was ever uppermost in the eye of the trading association. The 
Company drifted gradually into politics. To secure safe com- 
merce it was compelled to build and buy. This involved the 
necessity of defence. There must be a military protection. But 
such protection needed to be vigorous. The Saxon arm struck 
right and left, and neither native, Dane, Dutchman, nor French- 
man was spared. 

By and by the alternative arose — the Englishman must either 
leave the county or own it. He had no thought of leaving. 
His island in the West was dear to him, but it was small. He 
had acquired a firm liking for the Indian sky, and for what 
smiled and bloomed beneath it. He preferred to own the coun- 
try. He had to choose between owning it, or dying in it, or 
leaving it. He chose the first. The process was long, but he 
succeeded at last. His grasp is now passing from the force of 
steel to the stronger muscle of thought. His present great prob- 
lem is education. He is sure to solve it rightly, and to build up 
a population like himself. Some of England's greatest battles, 
when she comes to fight again in Europe, will be won by the 
aid of native-born soldiers from India. 

The Educational Beginnings. 

When Warren Hastings began to organize the country after 
the English model, educational measures came in for a full share 
of attention. From that time to the present it has been one of 
the most difficult questions to answer — how far to educate, and 
what to teach, and what degree of compulsion to employ. 

The first methods were extremely cautious, perhaps wisely 
so. But there must be no disguising the fact that too much 
concession was made to the Hindu and Mohammedan taste. 
First of all, both classes of the native population were opposed 
to any thorough education. With them, the less the better. 
The Hindu hostility was not so intense as the Mohammedan. 
Great scholars, whatever their faith, who had emerged above 
the surface of the prevailing ignorance were respected and 
almost adored. But the mass lay in ignorance. To get an 
education was regarded by the prince and the noble as too hard 
work for their children. Where the native training was at all 
above the merest rudiments, it took the line of the false theology. 
The priests were the teachers, and the science was gross mythol- 



t 



EDUCATION. 



369 



ogy and legendary history. The schools were near the famous tem- 
ples, and the priests taught in the shaded cloisters of the monas- 
teries or beneath the fronds of palms in sacred groves. Any pri- 
vate teaching was conducted in an easy way in the homes of the 
noble or princely classes. The time to stop teaching was decided 
by the pupil's wish rather than the teacher's judgment. 

This was the rule in the long Hindu ages, before the Moham- 
medan came down through Afghan passes into the valley of 
the Ganges. When he had gained a footing, he, too, did noth- 




MAYO COLLEGE, AJMIR. 

ing for popular education. He had gained his literary laurels 
by applying the torch to great libraries, and had no interest in 
more than one book, his Quran. But some of the Mogul em- 
perors had a taste for learning, just as their Moorish brothers 
in faith in far-off Spain. They patronized the highest science, 
and gave all honor to their renowned scholars. They created 
in India buildings for a privileged few, where they might ac- 
quire the best-known science, after the model of those in Bagh- 
dad and Ispahan.* But this was a close atmosphere. The beau- 



24 



Temple, "India in 1880," p. 138. 



370 INDIRA. 

tiful contagion never penetrated the masses. The priests taught 
young men, in the precincts of the mosques enough of theology 
to take their place in the service. 

But until the English ruled the country it never entered any 
one's thoughts that education was the nation's affair, and was 
everybody's privilege. How to get at the mind of two hundred 
millions of people, and set it to work, and make it burn for an 
education, is not the triumph of a day or a decade. The suc- 
cessive stages by which India was placed on the highway towards 
an education are easy to note. 

There was, first of all, the cautious method of the East India 
Company, which had its eye to trade. Hence its concessions to 
native prejudice. After the country became an English posses- 
sion there was an advance upon this time-serving policy. But 
there was no real break in the teaching of false knowledge. The 
money of the treasury was paid out to teachers who were in- 
structing the youth in science almost as false and primitive as 
had been taught for twenty-five centuries. 

It will be many a day before the text-books and methods in 
use in India will cease to give proof of a certain inexplicable 
tenderness of the authorities towards native faiths and super- 
stitions. The native of India does not respect the Englishman 
any more highly because he shows a disrespect for Christianity 
or a respect for the religions of the East. The probability is 
that he secretly despises the man who does violence to his own 
civilization. But as late as 1861 the Bombay Director of Pub- 
lic Instruction had deliberately "weeded out" of the text-books 
of that Presidency everything Christian. He characterized any 
reference to revealed religion as "sectarian" allusions. The 
Madras Director of Public Instruction published a volume, as 
a text-book, bearing the title of the " Tamil Minor Poets." In 
one place we find, in this precious volume for the youth of India, 
the following kindly advice as to how to pray to Ganesh : " Milk, 
sweet honey, syrup, and grain ; these four mixed together will 
I give thee. Do thou, O majestic, noble, elephant-faced one, 
thou holy jewel, grant me the three kinds of Tamil common in 
the world." In another place there is an injunction to worship 
Vishnu, in these two words : " Serve Vishnu." Shiv must, how- 
ever, have the same honor : " No misfortune can overtake those 
whose minds are ever intent on the praise due to Shiv." 



EDUCATION. 371 

In the following we have a direct teaching of pantheism: 
" He will not make any distinction, saying, I did this and he 
did that ;" " This is not and this is." But in his state of per- 
fection it will be true of him that " He himself is that (meaning 
God)." Here we have fatalism and transmigration : " Each 
must enjoy the fruits of his actions done in former births ac- 
cording to what Brahma has written (on the forehead). O 
king, what shall we do to those who are angry with us ? Though 
the whole town together be opposed to it, will destiny be frus- 
trated 3" 

There is no apology for the reading of such errors from na- 
tive authors in the schools of India. It is the teaching of the 
old and gross idolatry and other errors by Englishmen, who are 
paid for their work out of the treasury of the empire. The 
apology offered is, that these are only reading-lessons from the 
early native authors, and are not intended to teach idolatry. 
The argument used is that in Christian lands the works of 
pagan authors are used, and yet there is no intention to teach 
the old Greek and Roman mythology. But this beautiful piece 
of sophistry has been triumphantly exposed by the declaration 
that no one now believes in the pagan mythology of Horace and 
other writers, while the children in the schools of India are sur- 
rounded by the false faiths which are encouraged in their text- 
books, and they and their parents are firm believers in them.* 

A still more notable illustration of the support of Indian 
polytheism by the English rulers, through the dread of still 
causing offence, is to be seen in the aid given by the govern- 
ment towards the support of the temples and their priests. The 
Bombay Missionary Conference, in 1871, protested to the Eng- 
lish government that the number of idol temples and shrines 
in the Bombay Presidency alone amounted to twenty-six thou- 
sand five hundred and eighty-nine, and that these received a sup- 
port from the treasury and other sources under government 
control much larger than the number of churches in Great 
Britain receiving government support. These memorialists de- 
clared that seventy thousand pounds sterling were spent an- 
nually by the government in the Bombay Presidency for the 
support of heathen worship, while the annual expense to the 

* " Indian Year-Book " for 1862. Madras, 1863, p. 156. 



372 INDIRA. 

government for the support of idolatry in the Madras Presi- 
dency is nearly eighty-eight thousand pounds sterling.* 

Now, in justice to the British government, this must be said : 
That there has never been a deliberate attempt made to encour- 
age and perpetuate the idol worship of India. England had to 
take the country as she found it. What should she do in re- 
lation to the most troublesome of all questions — the faith of the 
nations ? It was a question of method. She found that certain 
revenues had, for many centuries, been set apart for the tem- 
ple service. She resolved to continue this system, not perma- 
nently, but for a time. As might have been foreseen, the con- 
cession was too great. It involved fundamentals. The Chris- 
tian government of England was immediately placed in a false 
position, and the policy of conciliation necessarily led to still 
further concessions. An indignant public opinion at home arose 
to meet the emergency. The protest was loud and deep. The 
demand for a thorough reform was made. From the very mo- 
ment when the sentiment in England arose in all its majesty, 
the policy in India underwent a change. While there are still 
some remains of the old system, the trend is to abandon every 
trace of English sympathy towards the false faiths of India. 
All dread of offending the polytheistic prejudices of the natives 
of India is passing away from the representatives of English 
authority. The time will soon come when in neither school-book 
nor temple will there be any evidence that the Englishman in 
India has any fear of the open and positive teaching of Chris- 
tianity. 

Macaulay's Educational Plan. 

Macaulay, the preacher's son, did more towards placing the 
education of India on a proper basis than all the titled states- 
men who had preceded him. He issued a Minute against the 
teaching of false science and false history, f It is a low calcu- 
lation to suppose that there are now at least 2,000,000 of Hindu 
children in schools who would not be there but for Macaulay's 
Plan. Through him, for the first time, the Thames flowed to 

* Lyall, "Asiatic Studies," p. 278. 

t Temple, "India in 1880," p. 139 ff. For valuable help in our information 
on education in India, we are indebted to Chapter VIII. (" National Educa- 
tion") of this work, the fruit of the author's thirty years' experience in India. 



EDUCATION. 



373 



India. The collapse of the old system had come at last. 
Thomason, the Lieutenant-Governor of the Northwestern Prov- 
inces, was the first English, representative to take steps towards 
a system of education of the peasantry. But the despatch of 
Sir Charles Wood (afterwards Lord Halifax), in 1854, was a 
formal prescription of a system of public instruction, " which 
is," as Temple says, " regarded as the Magna Charta of national 
education in British India." 

The government grants an annual aid to education amount- 
ing to eight hundred thousand pounds, or one fortieth part of 




DALY COLLEGE, INDORE. 



its available revenue. But this only represents a formal allow- 
ance. There are other directions in which the government aids 
education, and Sir Eichard Temple, who supposes that the gov- 
ernment aid likely reaches two millions of pounds. But he says 
that even this is a " small sum for so great a country." 

It must be admitted that the whole tone of popular education 
in India has been largely influenced by the high position taken 
by the missionaries. The influence of Carey, Marshman, and 
Ward in Serampore was felt not only throughout India, but 
throughout the Oriental world. Their own mastery of the 
learning of the Hindus, and their use of it afterwards as an agent 



374 INDIRA. 

for the propagation of the Gospel, gave them an incalculable 
influence in determining the educational policy for the millions 
of India. 

Next, perhaps, to the influence of the first missions in Bengal, 
was the revolutionary measure of Duff, of Scotland. His great 
distinctive policy was to do all his teaching through the medium 
of the English language. He foresaw that his language must 
inevitably become the speech of the whole land, and he began 
to prepare for it by making it the medium of all instruction in 
his college in Calcutta. His reading and exposition of the Eng- 
lish Bible lesson were daily cannon-shots at all the old faiths 
of India. 

In addition to the schools affiliated to the universities, and 
the many in grade beneath them, there are normal schools and 
institutions for instruction in art, engineering, and all the de- 
partments of natural science. Latterly, the universities are 
granting degrees in science — a movement which is highly im- 
portant in its bearing on the breaking down of the old and 
false science which has prevailed in the country from time im- 
memorial. 

In order to get at the best method of popular education, the 
English rulers had two plans open before them. One was, to 
begin with the lowest classes, and, by providing good schools 
and in vast numbers, to reach the uppermost strata in society ; 
the other was, to begin with advanced schools at the top of 
the social scale, and let the educational process be downward, 
until the whole body was educated. This was called the " filtra- 
tion" scheme. It was adopted, as being the most promising. 
But it failed.* The masses were untouched. Its failure proving 
itself complete, the other end of the scale was adopted. Schools 
were provided in great numbers for the poor and most ignorant. 
The influence was felt immediately by every class. The change 
of method took place in 1854, and from that time to the present, 
the work of popular education has been steadily advancing. 

I had conversations with professors in schools of all grades, 
not only in the larger cities, but in the more provincial places. 
They were mostly gentlemen of European birth and education, 

* Statement exhibiting the "Moral and Material Progress and Condition of 
India during the year 1881-2" (Government Document, 18th No.) 



EDUCATION. 375 

and had brought with them all the ease, gentleness, and refine- 
ment of the Western scholar. They brought with them their 
libraries, and all the attachments for every ray of new light 
which might be shot across from the centres of learning in Ger- 
many, France, and England. Nothing fresh and eventful which 
had been announced in a university of Germany, or in Oxford 
or Cambridge, needed more than a few weeks to be as well 
known in India as at home. The scholar from Europe soon 
finds himself at home in such an atmosphere. And why not ? 
He is in the other England. 

The rate of increase in the use which the natives make of the 
great facilities now afforded by the government schools is very 
gratifying. The Bombay Presidency can speak for all. During 
the last decade the Hindu and native Christian students have 
doubled, while the Mohammedan students have nearly trebled. 
Under the head of "others", the advance has been more than 
three hundred per cent. 

This revelation proves one thing completely — that the caste- 
less people are now reached. It is a magnificent triumph, sec- 
ond only to Plassey. Compulsory education has not yet entered 
into the region of possibility. The deeper question is, how to 
get rice enough to keep soul and body together. When the 
channels for labor are sufficiently deep, and the government 
has made it possible for every man to spare his children from 
the labor into which they are thrust at a premature age, the ques- 
tion of compulsory education will be easy to settle. 



CHAPTEE XLII. 

THE HIGHER HINDU SCHOOLS. 

What are the Hindus doing for their own education ? In all 
India there is no great central institution founded by a native, 
or a number of them, compared with the great Mohammedan 
University of Aligarh. But there are schools of very high grade 
which the Hindus have established, and are constantly strength- 
ening. They have been prompted to this new measure in great 
part by the example of the government and the missionary socie- 
ties. The far-sighted Hindu is not willing that his children shall 
be entirely in the power of Christian teachers. He sees what 
the Christian college and university are doing, and that they 
are every day acquiring new power. He, therefore, proposes a 
counteracting force. He has already set before himself the task 
of founding schools to his own liking. He takes those of the gov- 
ernment and the missionaries as his models, and is not inclined to 
be far behind them in establishing educational institutions where 
his children, whatever becomes of their faith in later years, shall, 
at least in their youth, be safe from direct Christian teaching. 

Calcutta is the centre of this important native movement. 
The beginning was made in 1879, when Yidyasagur, the Hindu 
reformer, opened the Metropolitan College in Calcutta. JNo 
foreigners were connected with it, nor was the government 
asked to furnish even a grant-in-aid.* In 1881 two other col- 
leges were established — the City College, founded by the pro- 
testers against Keshub Chunder Sen, and the Albert College, 
founded by Sen's brother. Shortly afterwards the Kipon College 
was founded by Surendro Nath Banerjea. With the exception 



* The best account I have met with concerning this new educational de- 
parture of the Hindus is by the Rev. K. S. Macdonald, M.A., in the Free 
Church of Scotland Monthly for February, 1886. To this I am indebted for a 
large share of the information contained in the present chapter. 



THE HIGHER HINDU SCHOOLS. 



377 



of the Albert College, these colleges teach all the studies up to 
the B.A. examination, and contain as many students and pass as 
many examinations as the Presidency College. Fees are charged 
in these colleges, but they are smaller than those required by 
either the government or missionary colleges. Free scholar- 
ships are given to promising students, in addition to what they 
may have earned by competition. 

In Burdwan, a large town sixty-six miles northwest of Cal- 
cutta, there is another Hindu college of the same general char- 
acter. It was founded by the late Maharajah, and is supported 




THE CATHEDRAL SCHOOL, BOMBAY. 



by funds given by him. No fees are charged. In fact, " several 
boys, in consideration of their extreme indigence, are found in 
money, besides being provided with free tuition." The college 
was affiliated with the Calcutta University in 1882, and its course 
of instruction covers not only a liberal English education, but 
two years in the University. In addition to the Anglo -Vernacu- 
lar Department — that is, the collegiate school and the college 
proper — there are also a girls' school of six classes, taught by 
two ladies and professors ; a Bengali school, taught by three 
professors ; a Persian school, taught by a Mohammedan pro- 
fessor ; and a Sanskrit school, where " Sanskrit logic, with all its 



378 INDIKA. 

accessories," and " Sanskrit rhetoric in all its ramifications," are 
taught.. The whole annual expense of this large establishment 
is only two thousand pounds sterling a year. It is simply a 
small slice out of the fifty thousand pounds sterling which the 
Maharajah set aside for religious and charitable purposes out of 
his total annual income of two hundred thousand pounds sterling. 

No religion is directly taught in the college at Burdwan. But 
the spirit is 'Hindu. The education is open to all classes alike. 
Hindus, Mussulmans, Jains, and Christians are admitted on the 
same terms of free tuition. In 1885 there were seven hundred 
and seventy-three students in attendance, of whom seven hun- 
dred and eleven were Hindus, fifty-nine Mohammedans, and 
three " other religionists." The location, in Burdwan, is such 
as to make the school very influential. It is on the Grand Trunk 
and East Indian Kail way, which connects Bengal with the North- 
west Provinces, Oudh, and the Panjab. All the traffic with the 
Central Provinces, Bombay, and Kajputana passes through it. 
In addition to these advantages, it has all the social power of 
being the seat of the Maharajah, the richest nobleman of Bengal. 

Now, what is remarkable about this college is the freedom 
with which it welcomes Christian discussion. Mr. Macdonald 
relates that on one occasion he went to Burdwan for the double 
purpose of addressing the railway officials on temperance and 
the students on the theological subject of " Substitution and 
Mediation." The temperance lecture was attended by only a 
few, and they were not enthusiastic ; but the lecture to the stu- 
dents was so largely attended that the three doorways were 
crowded, and the entire audience expressed their obligation by 
a vote of thanks. Mr. Macdonald reciprocated the cordiality by 
promising to return, on a future day, and speak on " Jesus as the 
God-appointed Substitute and Mediator." 

It is difficult to tell what will be the future of this attempt of 
wealthy and cultivated Hindus to educate their young people. 
The indications are that great good will come from it. With- 
out question, the most of these schools have sprung from the 
reformatory and advanced thinking in the torpid mass of Hin- 
duism. There is not only a spirit of freedom of religious in- 
struction, but of sympathy with Christian civilization. The 
most of the warm adherents to the old system of Hindu faith 
see very clearly how much India owes to Christianity, and the 



THE HIGHER HINDU SCHOOLS. 



379 



fact stares them in the face that all the science of the times, 
which is lifting India out of its pagan past, is the gift of the 
Christian "West. When students go out from these Hindu 
schools, where the very text-books are of Christian authorship 
and the professors have been taught in the government and 
missionary institutions of learning, they will carry with them an 
unconscious Christian influence. Their very education will be 
proof of what Christianity can do for India. 

The great significance of the native Hindu college lies in the 
fact that it is a transitional movement from the old to the new. 
If not positively Christian, it is at least in that direction. It is 
one section of the general break-up of the old conditions. 



SACRIFICIAL SPOON, 
OLD BRASS, HINDU, 



CHAPTER XLIII. 

THE UNIVERSITIES OF INDIA. 

The British government for India has been prompt and wise 
in its measures to introduce a thorough university system. There 
are four of these, the universities of Bombay, Calcutta, Madras, 
and the Panjab. The acts of incorporation establishing the uni- 
versities of Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras were passed in 1857. 
The act incorporating the university of the Panjab was adopted 
in 1869. The great moral force of the original acts of incorpora- 
tion establishing these universities may be seen in the names 
which they bore. The act establishing the University of Cal- 
cutta contains the names of Earl Canning, Bishop "Wilson, and 
Dr. Alexander Duff. The act establishing the University of 
Bombay bears the names of Lord Elphinstone, Bishop Harding, 
Dr. Harkness, Sir Jamshidji Jijibhai, Jagganath Sankersett, and 
Dr. John Wilson. 

The universities are modelled closely after the great English 
examples of Cambridge and Oxford. In Madras a period of 
study is required, but there is no rule as to the place of study. 
In Calcutta and Bombay a period of study is required in any 
one of the recognized colleges affiliated with the university. 
Of these, in the Bombay Presidency there are seven in arts, four 
teaching up to the Bachelor of Arts Examination, and three up 
to the Previous Arts Examination. Three are government col- 
leges—the Elphinstone College, in Bombay (recognized 1860), 
the Dekhan College, in Puna (recognized in 1860), and the Gujerat 
College (recognized 1879), with a class studying up to the Pre- 
vious Examination standard. Two are missionary institutions 
— the Free General' Assembly's Institution (recognized 1861), 
and St. Xavier's College (recognized 1869). The Kajaram Col- 
lege (recognized 1880) is maintained by the Kolhapur State, and 
has been raised from a school to an Arts College for the purposes 
of the Previous Examination. In the year 1881 the Baroda 



THE, UNIVERSITIES OF INDIA. 383 

College was recognized in the Faculty of Arts for the purpose of 
the Previous Examination. In addition to these there are three 
others — the Government Law School (1860), the Grant Medical 
College in Medicine (1S60), which has since 1881 been recognized 
for the purposes of the Second Examination for the degree of 
Bachelor of Science ; and the Puna Civil-Engineering College, 
in civil engineering (1865), which has since 1881 been recognized 
for the purposes of the First and Second Examinations for the 
degree of Bachelor of Science. 

In Madras there are altogether forty-two recognized institu- 
tions — twenty-five teaching up to the First Arts Examination, of 
which five are connected with missionary societies ; thirteen 
teaching up to the Bachelor of Arts Examination, of which three 
are connected with missions; two in law, one in medicine, and 
one in engineering. In connection with the Calcutta University 
there are forty-three colleges teaching up to the Bachelor of 
Arts standard, of which fourteen are connected with the differ- 
ent churches, twenty-six teaching up to the First Arts Examina- 
tion, fifteen in law, one in medicine, and two in engineering — in 
all eighty-seven affiliated institutions. 

The Panjab University did not at first possess the power to 
confer degrees. This was due to the less advanced character 
and extent of education in the Panjab. The degree conferred 
would have been of an inferior character, and would thus have 
lessened the value of the Indian university degree in general. 
But in October, 1882, it was raised to the regular rank of a 
university by being clothed with power to confer degrees. A 
university in the Panjab has difficulties which neither of the 
other three has. Not only is education less advanced, but 
the native languages still possess a stronger hold. Hence, the 
special objects of the Panjab University were declared to be: 

" (1) To promote the diffusion of European science as far as possible, 
through the medium of the vernacular languages of the Panjab, and the im- 
provement and extension of vernacular literature generally; 

"(2) To afford encouragement to the enlightened study of Eastern classical 
languages and literature ; and 

" (3) To associate the learned and influential classes of the province with the 
officers of government in the promotion and supervision of popular education." 

The above are the special objects of the institution ; but at 
the same time every encouragement will be afforded to the 



384 INDIRA. 

study of the English language and literature ; and in all sub- 
jects which cannot be completely taught in the vernacular, the 
English language will be regarded as the medium of examina- 
tion and instruction. 

The institutions affiliated to, or aided by, the Panjab Univer- 
sity College are, the Oriental College, Lahor ; the Law School ; 
the Medical School ; the Government College ; and a number of 
aided schools scattered throughout the Panjab. 

The government of each University is vested in a board of Fel- 
lows, who represent the highest culture and governmental posi- 
tions in the land. Some are natives and some Europeans. The 
affairs of the University are conducted by a syndicate, elected 
from among the Fellows. The business of this syndicate is pro- 
posed by the Faculties, which consist of persons elected from any 
of its members. I have before me the report of the syndicate 
for the year 1886-1887. It is a model of minute and thorough 
statement, both educational and financial, of the successful op- 
eration of the Indian universities.* 

It must be remembered that the government is a most liberal 
donor to the schools 'under the patronage of the missionary so- 
cieties. It not only makes generous grants to them, but culti- 
vates them, and even charges higher fees for attendance upon 
its own schools than is charged by the missionary schools. In- 
deed, the missionary bodies are even represented in the Senates 
of the three great universities. There is no distinction made in 
the receiving of students. The course is fixed, and natives of 
any faith are as free to come as the sons of Europeans. 

The number of colleges and other higher institutions affiliated 
with the universities is constantly increasing. In round num- 
bers there are, to-day, one hundred colleges and five hundred 
high-schools connected with the four great universities of India. 
Two millions of the natives of India are now in attendance upon 
the higher Anglo-vernacular schools and are devoted to the study 
of the English language. In the various Calcutta colleges alone 
there are two thousand students. f 

* For Tables on University Education in India, see Appendix, Nos. IV. and V. 
t Macdonald, in Free Church Monthly, Sept. 1, 1885. 



CHAPTEK XLIY. 

AFTER THE COLLEGE— WHAT ? 

Not all the students in either the government or the mission- 
ary colleges become Christians. No religious conditions are re- 
quired. The student may be a Christian or not ; if he is diligent, 
and obeys all the regulations of the school, he has every privilege, 
and, if he pass through the prescribed university course, he re- 
ceives his degree. Calcutta is without question the principal 
educational, as it is the political, centre of the entire country. 
Those who have been students in its colleges and university may 
be considered a type of the alumni of similar institutions of 
learning throughout the empire. It is computed that in the 
small area of Calcutta and its suburbs — six miles by one and a 
half — there are twenty-eight thousand alumni who have com- 
pleted their curriculum in the five Christian colleges, the two 
government colleges, and the three non-Christian native colleges. 

A native college must be understood to be a college where 
neither proprietor, professor, nor student is a foreigner. There 
are about two thousand who are alumni, or students, of the Cal- 
cutta University, and there are one thousand youths besides 
who are studying up to the matriculation examination of the 
university. 

The English language is the medium employed in all these 
institutions for securing an education. It was a hard battle to 
introduce the system, but Duff fought bravely, and won, and no 
one thinks of going back to the old method of studying science 
through the medium of the native tongues. Macdonald says : 
" This process of educating the natives through the medium of 
the English language has been going on for the last fifty years 
with an ever-increasing impetus. Originating in Calcutta, it has 
spread all over the country, until there is not a town or village 
which has not been more or less affected by it. There are col- 
leges affiliated to the Calcutta University in almost every town 
25 



386 INDIRA. 

of importance throughout the province of Bengal. And side by 
side with all these colleges are large first-class schools or acad- 
emies, and in the smaller towns and larger villages are Anglo- 
vernacular schools, almost all of which teach up to the matricu- 
lation examination. There is thus scarcely a village of any im- 
portance throughout the country in which English is not taught, 
and from which the cleverest boys are not drafted for some 
neighboring college to receive a university education." * 

Now, what becomes of the Indian alumni of the college and 
university ? Of the many who finish the Curriculum, but a 
small fraction are Christians, or have positive Christian sym- 
pathies. If the graduates number thousands in Calcutta alone, 
what must be the total number throughout India? It may 
not be wide of the mark to suppose that there are in all India 
not less than forty thousand natives who have graduated at 
some school of high grade, and that ten per cent, of the num- 
ber have passed the university degrees. What is the position of 
these men to-day ? Are they looked upon by the natives with 
suspicion or aversion ? Not at all. They enjoy the highest re- 
spect, and are the recognized leaders of native thought. Mr. 
Macdonald declares that, after they leave school or college, 
scarcely any of them come under any Christian influence ; and 
that they will not attend the vernacular preaching of the Chris- 
tian missionary in the bazar, or in the village, or by the wayside. 
Very few of them have access to any Christian literature except 
in the vernacular, and that, from various causes, they will not 
read. 

Yet this is the class which is to rule the thought of the India 
of to-morrow. Already they are, and more are yet to be, the 
judges, lawyers, magistrates, professors, teachers, orators, physi- 
cians, engineers, merchants, authors, and journalists. All the 
subordinate branches of government, the administration of jus- 
tice, the training of the young, the trade and commerce of the 
empire, are to be directed by them. " The courts of law and 
justice, the government and merchant offices, the telegraph and 
telephone offices, and the railway stations are already filled by 
them. Female education is also very largely, if not almost alto- 
gether, in their hands. Social reforms and the legislation of the 

* Free Church of Scotland Monthly, Sept., 1885. 



AFTER THE COLLEGE— WHAT? 357 

country are most powerfully influenced by them. They are at 
the inception and carrying on of every political agitation that 
convulses the country. As a class they are at least as clever, in- 
telligent, and intellectual, and as well educated, as the average 
Englishman, or even Scotsman. They are, as it will be easily 
seen, the natural leaders of the dense, teeming millions of their 
poor, ignorant, down-trodden, and despised countrymen. They 
are the authors of almost all the modern vernacular literature 
that is scattered broadcast over the country, and which is daily 
read to the illiterate peasant and ignorant villager. In Calcutta 
alone they have as daily papers, in the English language, the In- 
dian Mirror and the Amrita Bazaar Patrika, both of them of 
much influence and wide circulation ; but of still greater influ- 
ence are their weekly papers— the Hindu Patriot, the Bengalee, 
Reis and Rayyat, the Indian Echo, the Bengal Messenger, and 
the Liberal and New Dispensation — all written, owned, and 
managed by these same educated natives. Besides, much of 
what appears in the Calcutta Review, the Statesman, and Daily 
News, periodicals edited by Europeans, is written by them." 

It is a serious question : What of the faith of this large num- 
ber of educated and powerful native Hindus ? Are they what 
they were, in this respect, before they crossed the college thresh- 
old ? Not at all. As they have progressed towards an education 
their old religion has lost its grasp. They still practise the out- 
ward rites of their old religion, because they desire to please their 
family and friends, and the formal casting off of the ancestral 
faith would break all the bonds which unite them to their home. 
But the old religion has no further charm. The very language, 
the potent English, through which they have received instruc- 
tion, has a charm which the native tongue can never again pos- 
sess. They look upon any Indian language as a thing of the 
past, and the faith as a doomed one. They are indifferent tow- 
ards all religions. They talk freely on theological subjects, at- 
tend lectures of visiting scholars from the West, and frequently 
Christian services when some distinguished preacher from abroad 
conducts them. 

The missionaries are now taking special pains to interest these 
educated natives. They recognize their power, and that the fut- 
ure of India lies in their hands. Mr. Macdonald gives the fol- 
lowing gratifying report of the special efforts now going on in 



388 INDIRA. 

Calcutta to complete the evangelization of the educated young 
Hindus : 

" A Christian literature specially adapted to their need is be- 
ing prepared — leaflets and small tracts are distributed in large 
numbers among them, and books, large and small, specially suited 
for them, are imported into the country from home, and sold to 
them or lent among them. Some of them are encouraged to 
visit the missionaries in their own houses, and these and others 
are visited by the missionaries. Lectures and addresses are pre- 
pared for their special need, and delivered in suitable localities. 
Meetings, got up by themselves for social, literary, and moral 
purposes, are attended by missionaries, and by speech and con- 
versation effort is put forth to guide their minds to the truth. 
Advantage is specially taken of their open-air gatherings in some 
of the squares of Calcutta to bring them together to listen to 
Christian evangelical addresses, accompanied by the offering of 
prayer and the singing of hymns alike in the English and the 
vernacular languages to European or Hindu tunes. 

" For the last five years this has been done systematically and 
perseveringly in Beaclon Square, which is situated in the centre 
of the native quarter of the town, and is laid out as a garden, 
with gravel walks, clumps of flowering shrubs, and large plots 
of grass. On one of these plots almost every evening, but es- 
pecially on Saturdays and Sundays, will be found one or two 
missionaries, with two or three native converts, surrounded by a 
pretty large company of educated young men, numbering on the 
Sunday evenings, on an average, three or four hundred, and 
sometimes amounting to as many as five or six hundred — all 
men, not a woman ever among them. Sometimes, however, a 
good sprinkling of little children accompany their fathers or 
brothers. These men are, many of them, students of our col- 
leges — a larger number ex-students, including representatives 
from almost all the subdivisions to which we have above re- 
ferred. 

" The meeting generally commences by the singing of a 
Christian hymn by two or three native Christian boys, who 
with praiseworthy perseverance attend these meetings with the 
view of helping in the service of song. Thereafter one of the 
brethren present mounts the small platform and offers up a 
short prayer in the hearing of an attentive and solemn audience. 



AFTER THE COLLEGE— WHAT? 389 

Another brother offers a short evangelical address, extending 
over ten to twenty minutes. Then another hymn is sung ; an- 
other address is delivered ; followed by a third hymn and a third 
address ; and if it be a moonlight evening, as many as four or 
live addresses are delivered before the meeting closes — the audi- 
ence standing on the grass attentively listening for two or three 
hours at a stretch, if the speaking be good and no counter- 
attraction has interfered to draw away the audience. 

" Since these meetings commenced five years ago, many thou- 
sands of the educated young men of Calcutta have heard the 
gospel freely proclaimed ; and earnest, fervid appeals have been 
made to them to be reconciled to God through Him who is him- 
self the way, the truth, and the life. That these proclamations 
and appeals have not been in vain is seen not only in the few 
who have openly acknowledged Christ as their Saviour, in the 
larger number who in the course of conversation admit not only 
the truth of the Christian religion but their own hope of salva- 
tion through Christ, but in the still larger number who take a 
pleasure in attending these meetings, and hearing of Christ and 
his salvation, night after night, week after week, and even month 
after month." 

The methods thus employed to give a Christian direction to 
the educated young men of Calcutta are having their influence 
throughout India. The various missionary societies have a keen 
appreciation of the importance of this special work, and are 
adapting themselves to it with a skill and energy worthy of 
Martyn, Carey, and other founders. Already some of the most 
brilliant and successful missionaries are from this very class of 
natives — men who went into the college as Hindus, but to-cjay 
are leaders in Christian work. Take the educated natives out of 
all the missionary bodies now at work in India, and the hands 
on the world's missionary dial would move backward many a 
year. The current has set in. The time will come when the 
Christian Church of India will be in the hands of natives, and 
in their hands because the European and American missionary 
will not be needed. If Indian Buddhists planted their system 
in China and Tibet, why may the clay not soon come when In- 
dian Christians will go far and wide, and plant the gospel in the 
regions longer belated in their pilgrimage towards the truth % 



CHAPTEE XLV. 

ENGLISH WRITERS IN INDIA. 

The more prominent bonds connecting England with India 
have always been military and commercial. But there are also 
literary associations which have played no small part in the 
great drama of English supremacy in Hindustan and Ceylon. 
In the early operations of the East India Company there was 
now and then an Englishman combining keen literary taste with 
an eye to commercial advantage, who helped in both ways to 
weld the chain which has finally brought India within the en- 
during control of his little island in the West. The English 
tradesman, pure and simple, was not even the first revealer of 
the boundless treasures of India. This was the work of the 
scholarly traveller. He was the pioneer who wandered over 
the country, lingered at those splendid courts, and came home 
with the story of the industries, the gorgeous architecture, the 
unrivalled jewels, the flora, and the exhaustless soil. His mar- 
vellous accounts stirred the commercial mind, and induced the 
English capitalists of three centuries ago to undertake the form- 
ing of great enterprises in the East. Sir Thomas Roe, not con- 
tent with exploring the Amazon on our Western Continent, 
never gave a pause to his long pilgrimage until he reached the 
court of the Great Mogul. The very moment when . that trav- 
eller — the first Englishman to behold the splendor of the Pea- 
cock Throne of Delhi — touched the marble floor of the greatest 
palace in the East, and breathed the perfumed air of its audi- 
ence-hall, was full of fate to that mighty empire. From that 
time onward England's eyes were never turned away from the 
wealth of India. 

The second incident was the formal opening of trade between 
England and India. The reigning Mogul had a beautiful daugh- 
ter, who was dangerously ill. Boughton, who played at both 
surgery and diplomacy, cured the princess. His price was the 



ENGLISH WRITERS IN INDIA. 391 

privilege of the English to trade in Bengal. It proved to be 
the largest fee in all the annals of medical science, for the first 
result was the great development of English trade in all India. 
The final result was the downfall of the Mogul Empire through 
the double means of British commerce and arms. 

The East India Company never displayed greater skill in the 
management of its affairs in India than in its selection of men. 
Many of its civil servants were skilful with the pen — an ability 
which served in good stead after they had become domesticated 
in India. Warren Hastings was hardly less as a literary char- 
acter than as a civil administrator. His wide reading, his de- 
lightful style, his abiding interest in the antiquities of India, 
then new to Europe, gave him a prominent place in the group 
of English statesmen who knew how to enjoy with equal ease 
the delights of literature and the absorbing engagements of civil 
rule. His communications to the home government were mas- 
terpieces of statecraft amid difficulties which seldom fall to the 
lot of the English Governor-General in India. Only recently 
has his voluminous correspondence with his wife come to light. 
In 1872 a large number of letters and other unpublished matter 
fell into the possession of the British Museum. 

*The correspondence with Mrs. Hastings has been carefully ed- 
ited, and grouped into three series. The first comprises the let- 
ters written from Calcutta in 1780. The second consists of letters 
conveyed secretly in quills while Hastings was at Chunar. The 
third comprises letters relating to Mrs. Hastings's voyage to 
England, and her husband's doings until he followed. The whole 
of this correspondence displays great tenderness, a constant 
thinking on his wife by Hastings, and a regard for a wife's affec- 
tion and esteem which is not surpassed in the whole domain 
of domestic correspondence. In the first series, the minute cir- 
cumstances connected with the duel between Hastings and Sir 
Philip Francis are related. Here the Governor-General speaks 
with that great delicacy of feeling and careful concealment of 
everything calculated to disturb his wife which place this por- 
tion of his correspondence in a place quite apart from the ordi- 
nary familiar writing of notable characters. In reading such 
of these letters of Hastings to his wife as have so far come to 
light, one cannot help forgetting Burke's terrific arraignment 
of his Indian administration, and remembering only that tender 



392 1NDIKA. 

domestic fidelity which knew no disturbance during the volcanic 
period when Hastings controlled India, and gathered up the 
loose threads which lay scattered everywhere as the result of 
Olive's conquest. Gladstone' has not been more successful in 
making the Homeric age a special study than was Hastings in 
abstracting himself froih his long mortal conflict with Francis, 
and in studying the peaceful themes of India's past and future. 
Macaulay thus paints his picture : " The conqueror in a deadly 
grapple, sitting down, with characteristic self-possession, to in- 
form Dr. Johnson in a letter about Sir William Jones's Persian 
Grammar, and the history, traditions, arts, and natural produc- 
tions of India." 

Concerning the official communications of Hastings from 
India on the political affairs of the century, Macaulay further 
says : " Of the numerous servants of the Company who have 
distinguished themselves as framers of minutes and despatches, 
Hastings stands at the head. He was, indeed, the person who 
gave the official writing of the Indian government the charac- 
ter which it still retains." 

Sir Philip Francis, still the most probable author of the " Let- 
ters of Junius," led a checkered life in India. He had been 
connected with the War Office in London, and resigned in 1772. 
In the following year he was appointed a member of the Coun- 
cil for India. An American cousin wrote him the following 
letter : 

" I have perused the Kegulation Bill carefully, and am of opinion that it 
will answer all your purposes effectually. It gives you vast power and a vast 
salary. But how did you get this appointment ? It is miraculous to me that 
a man should resign his office in 1772, and in 1773, without any change of 
ministry, be advanced in so very extraordinary a manner. 

"Your merit and abilities I was always ready to acknowledge, sir, but I was 
never taught to think much of Lord North's virtue and discernment; his 
treatment of you has in some measure redeemed him in my opinion." 

His preparation for civil service had been excellent. Edu- 
cated at St. Paul's school ; then serving in turn as clerk in the 
office of the Secretary of State ; as secretary of General Bligh 
in the expedition to the French coast, resulting in the destruc- 
tion of Cherbourg ; as secretary to a special embassy to Lisbon ; 
and again as clerk in the Secretary of State's office, he acquired 
a useful experience, and gradually became absorbed in the pro- 



ENGLISH WRITERS IN INDIA. 



393 



fessional study of political science and the Constitution and laws 
of England. 

Francis then served eighteen months as amanuensis to Will- 
iam Pitt, Earl of Chatham, and afterwards, for nine years, 
served as chief clerk in the War Office. He was now ready for 
India ; or, for that matter, for almost any place of political im- 
portance within the gift of the government. 

As the vessel which bore Francis and the other members of 
the council up the Hugli, to Calcutta, it was expected by the 
strangers from afar that the 
royal salute of twenty-one guns 
from the batteries of Fort Will- 
iam would be given them. But, 
alas, the number was seventeen.* 
Hastings had taken great care 
that the royal salute should not 
be given. Francis was disgusted. 
His pride was wounded. When 
he met Hastings the reception 
was cold and formal. He took 
no pains to conceal his sense of 
injury. A few ounces more of 
gunpowder would probably have 
made them cordial friends. But 
now there could be no friendship. 
This first affront laid the foun- 
dation of that bitter hostility of 
Francis to Hastings and his ad- 
ministration, sharpened the pen 
of Francis for invective and satire hardly less keen than one 
finds in the " Letters of Junius," and led to a duel between the 
two in India which resulted in the wounding of Francis and 
that trial of Hastings by the House of Commons which shook 
all England and her distant colonies. 

Francis indulged in all the license and splendor which his po- 
sition, salary, and skill in gaming permitted. It is said that he 
paid a rent of $60,000 a year for his house, employed 104 serv- 
ants, and had his grand dinners and balls. But all the while he 




jlk ''SI, 'Ja "BfZtttkn B/Xr/laMz/JJ 



SIR PHILTP FRANCIS. 



* Busteed, "Echoes from Old Calcutta," p. 55. 



394 



INDIRA. 



watched Hastings with an eagle eye. Never has the Indian 
mail carried back to England more violent attacks on a gov- 
ernor-general than those of Francis against Hastings. During 
all the first years of his stay in India he underestimated the 
genius of his foe. Hastings triumphed in the end. His pen, 
and that endurance which "resembled the patience of stupid- 
ity," triumphed over the malignity of the temper and the am- 
bition and the venomous pen of even Philip Francis. 

The relation of Francis to Madame Grand belongs to the so- 
cial history of India, France, and England. This woman was 
one of the most beautiful and fascinating of her times. She 
combined all the winning charms of her French origin, her Eng- 
lish training, and her Indian home. Her maiden name was 
Werlee. She was born November 21, 1762. The place of her 
birth was Anjengo, in the Danish settlement of Tranquebar, on 
the Coromandel coast. She married a Frenchman, Grand, when 
she was less than fifteen years of age. She and her husband 
lived in Calcutta. Francis established relations with her, and 
a long trial resulted, which attracted the universal attention of 
the Anglo-Indian people, and gave occasion to more gossip and 
scandal than any one event in the later history of India. 

Madame Grand went to France, where Talleyrand met her. 
He was fascinated by her, and was compelled by Napoleon to 
marry her at twenty -four hours' notice. There was no trouble 
in securing a divorce from Grand before the marriage. He was 
still in India, living on the money which Francis had paid him. 
Madame de Remusat thus describes her : " She was tall, and her 
figure had all the suppleness and grace so common to women 
born in the East. Her complexion was dazzling, her eyes of the 
brightest blue ; and her slightly turned-up nose gave her, sin- 
gularly enough, a look of Talleyrand himself. Her fair golden 
hair was of proverbial beauty." Her beauty was long a favor- 
ite social theme in Paris. Her history was against her, but her 
personal charms created an empire quite her own. Talleyrand 
took her with him to Vienna at the time of the Congress of 
Vienna, where her Oriental tastes and peculiarities astounded the 
nobles and their families. One of the diplomats remonstrated with 
Talleyrand on account of some performance of his capricious wife. 
The only answer which Talleyrand made was, "But, my dear 
sir, what do you wish me to do ? My wife is such a beast !" 



ENGLISH WBITEES IN INDIA. 395 

The Princess Talleyrand was not distinguished for scholarship. 
The following story flew like wild-fire through Paris. We give 
it as told by Napoleon to O'Meara at St. Helena, in .1817 : 

" I sometimes asked Denon (whose work I suppose you have read) to break- 
fast with me, as I took a pleasure in his conversation, and spoke very freely 
with him. Now all the intriguers and speculators paid their court to Denon 
with a view of inducing him to mention their projects or themselves in the 
course of his conversation with me, thinking that being mentioned by such a 
man as Denon, for whom I had a great esteem, might materially serve them. 
Talleyrand, who was a great speculator, invited Denon to dinner. When he 
went home to his wife, he said, ' My dear, I have invited Denon to dine ; he 
is a great traveller, and you must say something handsome to him about his 
travels, as he may be useful to us with the Emperor.' 

" His wife, being extremely ignorant and probably never having read any 
other book of travels than that of Robinson Crusoe, concluded that Denon 
could be nobody else. Wishing to be very civil to him, she, before a large 
company, asked him divers questions about his man Friday. Denon, aston- 
ished, did not know what to think at first, but at length discovered by her 
questions that she really imagined him to be Robinson Crusoe. His astonish- 
ment and that of the company cannot be described, nor the peals of laughter 
which it excited in Paris as the story flew like wildfire through the city, and 
even Talleyrand himself was ashamed of it." 

It is but fair to sa}^ however, that Talleyrand himself after- 
wards denied the truth of the story, but in doing so he told an- 
other one which was quite equal as an illustration of Madame's 
sublime ignorance. This notable woman died in Paris in 1835, 
and was interred in the Cemetery of Mont Parnasse. Her pict- 
ure by Zoflany hangs on the walls of the College at Serampore, 
while Gerard's more celebrated portrait adorns the Louvre. 

There is hardly any notable event in Anglo-Indian history 
with which English literature has not some immediate connec- 
tion. Even the Black Hole tragedy has its intimate associa- 
tions. That is the best known of all the individual crimes per- 
petrated by a native of India on English people. Calcutta was 
captured from the English by the native troops under Siraj ud 
Daula (Lamp of the State), the Suba of Bengal. The later 
opinion of those best able to judge the conditions of the times 
is to the effect that the young Hindu commander was not re- 
sponsible for the imprisonment and suffocation of the English 
people in the Black Hole, but that subordinate officers were the 
real perpetrators of the tragedy. 



396 



INDIRA. 



J. Z. Holwell was one of the few surviving prisoners. He 
became the historian of the - tragedy, and afterwards erected a 
monument to the memory of his murdered fellow-countrymen. 
Holwell, when a boy, was educated at Richmond, and arrived 
as surgeon's-mate in an Indiaman, in Calcutta, in the year 1732. 
He learned Arabic in Arabia, and soon displayed his scholarly 
tastes by becoming intimately acquainted with the customs and 
antiquities of India. He returned to England, wrote on Indian 

topics, and in 1751 
returned to India as 
i[ - ,-— 12th member of the 

\ / ; perpetual Zemindar 

and Council. Being 
in Calcutta at the time 
of the capture by Siraj 
ud Daula, he was con- 
fined with others in 
the Black Hole. His 
health was shattered 
by the sufferings of 
that awful night. He 
returned to England. 
He again went to In- 
dia, and, for a short 
time, succeeded Clive 
as Governor - General 
of the country. He 
retired in 1760 from 
his Indian service. 

Hoi well's history in 
India was that of a 
man who seems to have 
been aroused to intense mental activity by the historical and 
literary wealth of the country. The very air about him in- 
spired him to earnest research. His "Narrative of the Black 
Hole Tragedy" was an exhaustive monograph, and is the best 
original source for the proper understanding of that blackest 
chapter of Anglo-Indian history. But Hoi well's study of India 
led him into larger fields. He inquired deeply into the religions 
of the people, their architectural achievements, their usages, and 




J. Z. HOLWELL. 



ENGLISH WRITERS IN INDIA. 397 

their far-clistant history. His principal works are his " Mythol- 
ogy, Cosmogony, Fasts and Festivals," and " Interesting His- 
torical Events Relative to the Province of Bengal." He was 
probably one of the best collectors of ancient manuscripts and 
other literary treasures in India, at a time when the European 
craze for Oriental literary treasures had not as yet made them 
scarce in India. But his rich gatherings were lost at the capt- 
ure of Calcutta. In addition to his elaborate books, he wrote 
monographs on various Indian topics, and contributed largely 
to awaken in England a literary interest in India. His fame 
spread to the Continent, where he was recognized, even more 
than in England, as an author of great worth. Yoltaire says 
of him : " This is the same Holwell who learned not only the 
language of the modern Brahmans, but also that of the ancient 
Brahmans. It is he who wrote most precious memoirs on In- 
dia, and who translated sublime specimens of the first books 
written in the sacred language. We owe much to this man, who 
has only travelled to instruct. He has revealed that which has 
been concealed for ages. "We exhort any one who wishes to be 
instructed to read attentively the ancient allegorical fables — the 
primitive sources of all the fables which have prevailed in Per- 
sia, Chaldea, Egypt, and Greece, and have found their home 
amid the miserable hordes of barbarians, as well as among the 
greatest and most flourishing nations. These things are more 
worthy of the study of the wise man than the quarrels of some 
dealers about muslin and dyed stuffs." 

Holwell survived his night in the Black Hole forty-two years, 
dying in England in 1798. "While he reached the ripe age of 
eighty-seven, it was not an exception in his family. His mother 
lived to be 102 years of age, and then did not die a natural 
death, but was burned in her bed, having on the same day, as 
the family tradition goes, "danced a minuet with her grandson 
on the occasion of the anniversary of his birthday." * 

Anjengo, the same town in France which gave birth to 
Madame Grand, was also the birthplace of another woman 
celebrated alike for her beauty and her relation to English 
literature. This was Eliza Draper, the wife of a Bombay ci- 
vilian. She was beloved by the celebrated Abbe Raynal, who 

* Busteed, " Echoes from Old Calcutta," pp. 38, 39. 



398 



INBIKA. 



wrote of her that Eliza's name would forever rescue the insig- 
nificant Anjengo from oblivion.* But her place in English 
literature is that of Sterne's Eliza. Of her personal charms, 
Forbes, in his " Oriental Memoirs," says : " A lady with whom 
I had the pleasure of being acquainted at Bombay, whose refined 
taste and elegant accomplishments require no encomium from 
my pen." 

An important movement in India in the latter half of the 
eighteenth century was the founding of the periodical press. 
The first newspaper established in the country was Hicky's Ga- 
zette, which began its history on January 29, 1780, and soon took 
its place as an organ for the representation of the large Anglo- 
Indian colony in Calcutta. The freedom with which it dis- 
cussed social topics made it a great power. It was not discreet, 
and often wandered into forbidden social paths. The India 
Gazette of 1789, for example, contained an editorial congratu- 
lating its readers on the fact "that the pleasures of the bottle 
and the too prevailing enticements of play were now almost 
universally sacrificed to the far superior attractions of female 
society." \ 

Hicky's Gazette was the parent of a large number of news- 
papers and periodicals, not only in Calcutta, but in other parts 
of India. These periodicals, which had grown into a very re- 
spectable number by the year 1830, became the medium by 
which young Englishmen of literary tastes made their acquaint- 
ance with the public. It appears that many a man in both the 
military and the civil service, on going to India, first discovered 
his own literary, spirit in his adopted country. London was too 
far away for him to reach the public through its periodicals. 
The editors near at hand were less critical, permitted much 
larger liberty in the discussion of social and other topics, and 
were much less exacting as to style and matter. Of the style 
of the romances written in India by the English at that time, 
the beginning of Parker's "Oriental Tale" may be considered 
a fair illustration : 

"Joseph, a duwaat (ink-stand), filled with the blackest ink of Agra, and 
40,000 new Persian cullums (pens). Good! A fresh chillum; saturate the 



* Busteed, " Echoes from Old Calcutta," p. 262. 

t Laurie, " Sketches of Some Distinguished Anglo-Indians," p. 179. 



ENGLISH WRITERS IN INDIA. 399 

tatties with Goolaub, scatter little mountains of roses, chumpah, and baubal 
blossoms about the room; bring me a vast serai of iced sherbet, pure juice 
of the pomegranate, you understand, and now here goes !" 

This was a mere introduction. The beginning of the " Orien- 
tal Tale" proper, was as follows : 

"The snakes were prodigiously lively — thermometer stood precisely at 138° 
Fahrenheit in the sun, but was some degrees lower in the shade. There is 
an uproar ! A tiger and a buffalo, coming to drink up the last quart of water 
which lies in a little patch of marsh, have got themselves into a sufficiently 
absurd situation : a playful boa has embraced them both. He — poor good- 
natured creature, quite unconscious of their dissatisfaction, has judiciously 
wrapped his tail round a pretty extensive clump of teak-trees, and with the 
spare end of his body is uncommonly cracking the ribs of his companions, 
which go off like so many muskets, and otherwise preparing them in the most 
approved manner amongst boas for his supper. I said the snakes were pro- 
digiously lively." 

The Calcutta Literary Gazette, established about 1835, and 
edited by D. S. Richardson, was ably conducted. The editor 
himself became known in Europe as the author of "Literary 
Leaves," " Home Visions," " The Ocean Sketches," and the " Se- 
lections from the British Poets." Macaulay, during his resi- 
dence in Calcutta, was so pleased with this last work that he 
drafted a plan for a similar book of selections from the British 
prose-writers, but never completed his undertaking. 

The Bengal Annual of 1833 was a great favorite with ambi- 
tious young Anglo-Indians. It had a list of fifty contributors, 
and there seemed to be no end to the enterprise and daring of 
those young and aspiring tyros in literature in the far-off land of 
their adoption. It can hardly be doubted that many a writer 
expected to reach the British public at home by a successful use 
of his pen in the adventurous journals of India. Many of the 
works on Indian topics, and, indeed, on subjects of general char- 
acter, were first treated in the Indian periodicals, and afterwards 
appeared with a London imprint. For example, Parker's " Or- 
iental Tale " first saw daylight in the Bengal Annual, and was 
published in his collected writings in London under the title of 
" Bole Pongis." His " Draught of Immortality " and other 
poems had been issued in London as early as 1827. Torrens's 
" Remarks on the Scope and Uses of Military Literature and 
History" was published first in the Eastern Star in 1846. 



400 INDIRA. 

As we read the large lists of works now constantly appearing 
from the press of Allen, Triibner, Chapman, and other houses in 
London, it is difficult to tell just what has already seen the light 
in the Calcutta Review, the Christian College Magazine, and other 
periodicals of India. Still, this question of literary birth is hardly 
ever inquired into very closely, either in Europe, America, or India. 

The military authorship of Anglo-Indians received early atten- 
tion, and has grown with remarkable rapidity. Since the con- 
quest of India by Clive, and its solidification by Hastings, there 
k has grown up a wealth of books on the military fortunes of the 
country which would constitute a vast library in itself. The ex- 
peditions to Afghanistan and to Burma, the Sikh War, the Sepoy 
Mutiny, and, indeed, every military movement in the country, have 
awakened a spirit of historical investigation which has taken shape 
in large works. Some of them are not only treasures of history, 
but even of archaBological research. The conquest of the Panjab 
has not only been treated in a military point of view, but that 
country, having been the scene of Alexander's conquest, the old 
Greek relations have been discussed, and points of identity be- 
tween Hindu and Greek civilization established. These works 
have become a part of the permanent treasure of the world's 
literature. 

Many of the great campaigns have been treated by the leaders . 
themselves. Havelock wrote " The Campaigns in Ava," Neill 
wrote a history of the First Madras European Regiment, Sykes 
wrote valuable notes on Ancient India, and Phayre wrote on the 
Burma Race. The important writings of Sir John W. Kaye — 
such as his " Essays of an Optimist," " History of the War in 
Afghanistan," " Life of Lord Metcalfe," " History of the Sepoy 
War," " History of the Administration of the East India Com- 
pany,"- and "Lives of Indian Officers" — show how strongly the 
literary spirit has prevailed among the military leaders who have 
established English supremacy in India. 

To the military treatises of the country belong also books 
describing the industrial and social life. We do not believe a 
single industry has been forgotten. Men who have conducted 
large tea and coffee plantations have written on each subject. 
No study of cotton culture would be complete without consulting 
the works of the Anglo-Indian writers. Special antiquity, such 
as the architecture of the temples, has been treated with scientific 



ENGLISH WRITERS IN INDIA. 



401 



thoroughness, and new light has been furnished by Fergusson and 
other patient English inquirers. The best writers on all these 
themes have not been mere tourists, but, like Sir William Jones, 
have had such sympathy with the country as only residence im- 
parts. Their duties, either as civilians or soldiers, confined them 
often to one locality, where the history, or some other interest of 
the place, set them to thinking and writing. India owes to Eng- 
land not only a good government, the introduction of Western 
civilization, the freedom for the propagation of Christianity, but 




RESIDENCE OP MACAULAY. 



also the revelation of India to itself and to the great Western 
world. * 

From Macaulay's connection with India we have the two most 
brilliant papers on that country which have been written — namely, 
the essays on Clive and Hastings. The relation of the Macaulay 
family to India did not begin with the going of Thomas Babing- 
ton Macaulay as a member of the Council in 1834, and his re- 
maining there four years. His father, Zachary Macaulay, had 
been a merchant in India and returned to England. The uncle 
of the historian had lived on the western coast of India. An 
26 



402 INDIKA. 

a^ed lady of Madras told me of the insecure life of himself and 
his children, and proved it by the fact that they often slept in 
couches lodged in the branches of the trees of the plantation, as 
the only refuge from the prowling beasts of the forests. 

In Calcutta I had a conversation with Mr. Andrews, who had 
been a familiar aid to the historian during his stay in Calcutta, 
from 1834 to 1838. The reverence with which he spoke of his 
employer, and of his kindness to him, and the methods of his 
daily life, was exceedingly beautiful. Of all the memories of Mr. 
Andrews I doubt not that those of his daily service to Macaulay 
will remain the most cherished. The residence of Macaulay was 
one of the most attractive in Calcutta, and is now the Bengal 
Club -House. The Club is a delightful resort. The rooms are 
spacious and beautiful. The tables are supplied with the best 
periodicals from every part of the world. 

William Makepeace Thackeray was born in Calcutta. The 
Armenian School is pointed out as the house where the great 
novelist first saw the light. The family had long been associated 
with India. In January, 1766, the Lord Camden sailed from 
England for Calcutta. There were on board eleven men who 
were to do service in India as writers in the East India Company. 
One was Ray, the son of Lord Sandwich, and subsequently distin- 
guished as a Bengal author. Another was "William Makepeace 
Thackeray, the grandfather of the novelist. This elder Thack- 
eray was one of the four emploj^ed in the Secretary's office. He 
seems to have given satisfaction to his superior, for in the follow- 
ing year the president informed the Board that he was in need 
of an assistant as cash-keeper. Thackeray was appointed to this 
office. The Register of St. John's Cathedral, in Calcutta, con- 
tains an entry of his marriage to Miss Amelia "Webb, January 13, 
1T76. The family became permanent residents of that city. The 
father of the novelist seems to have been of no special promi- 
nence. He was buried in the North Park Cemetery, Calcutta, 
where his tombstone is still to be found.* 

The Armenian School is a plain building with a commodious 
balcony. The structure is old and well worn. As I passed it I 
could not help going back, in memory, to September, 1857, when 
I saw Thackeray for the first and only time. It was at a rail- 

* Busteed," Echoes from Old Calcutta," p. 207. 



ENGLISH WRITERS IN INDIA. 



403 



way station in Paris, and I was going out to spend the day 
among the royal tombs of old St. Denis, the Westminster Abbey 
of France. As my travelling companion and I were taking in 
that world of contrasts and contradictions which one sees to 
perfection in a Paris station, a man was borne in upon a litter 
by friendly hands. He was an Englishman taken suddenly and 
seriously ill, and was on his way to his home in London. A tall, 
gray-haired, square-faced Englishman had just bought his ticket, 




BIRTHPLACE OF THACKERAY. 



and was about to enter the cars. Just then he caught sight of 
this poor, helpless brother man. He went to him, bent over 
him, made inquiries as to his disease and where he was going, 
and did not leave him until he had encouraged the gentleman 
by kindly words, had given him a slip of paper containing the 
address of a London physician who had cured him of the same 
disease, and had bidden him a brotherly good-bye. I never 
learned who the invalid was, but the good Samaritan was none 



404 INDIRA. 

other than the full-grown man who first saw the light in this 
humble place in Calcutta. Who could witness such a scene of 
sympathy and real tenderness, and afterwards call Thackeray's 
heart cold and cynical? 

" He was a Cynic ! By his life all wrought 

Of generous acts, mild words, and gentle ways; 
His heart wide open to all kindly thought, 

His hand so quick to give, his tongue to praise. 

" He was a Cynic ! You might read it writ 

In that broad brow, crowned with its silver hair; 
In those blue eyes, with childlike candor lit, 
In the sweet smile his lips were wont to wear." 

* * * "If he smiled 
His smile had more of sadness than of mirth, 
But more of love than either, undefiled, 
Gentle alike by accident of birth, 
And gift of courtesy, and grace of love; 
When shall his friends find such another friend ?" 

Thackeray was always a roamer. His going, when young, 
from Calcutta to London was but the beginning. He was no 
sooner at home than he was ready to leave again, for fresh ma- 
terial for new creations. But the simple London home was al- 
ways first and last in mind. His great heart tells its own secret 
at the end of " The White Squall " ballad : 

" I thought, as day was breaking, 
My little girls were waking, 
And smiling, and making 
A prayer at home for me." 

The cemeteries of India tell many a romantic story, by the bare 
mention of names, of the close relation between that country and 
the writers at home. In a cemetery at Puna there lies buried 
the celebrated African traveller, Sir W. C. Harris, who died Oc- 
tober 9, 1848. He was author of " Wild Sports in the West," 
and " Highlands of Ethiopia." In All-Saints' Church, in Banga- 
lore, there is a tablet to Lieut.-Colonel Sir Walter Scott — we be- 
lieve a son of the great Wizard of the North — who died at sea 
February 8, 1847, aged 46. Only recently a son of Tennyson 
has died at sea on his return from India. 



ENGLISH WRITERS IN INDIA. 405 

In the North Park Cemetery of Calcutta there is a black 
marble slab containing the inscription — 

In Memory op 

The Honourable 

ROSE WHITWORTH AYLMER, 

who departed this life March 2d, A.D. 1800. 

Aged 20 years. 

What was her fate? Long, long before her hour, 
Death called her tender soul by break of bliss, 
From the first blossoms to the buds of joy, 
Those few our noxious fate unblasted leaves 
In this inclement clime of human lire. 

This name calls to mind the most romantic period of the life 
of Walter Savage Landor. Landor left Oxford in 1797. He 
spent some time on the Welsh coast, where he made the acquaint- 
ance of Lord Aylmer's family. An attachment sprang up be- 
tween Rose, the daughter of Lord Aylmer, and young Landor. 
One day she loaned him a book from the Swansea Circulating 
Library. It was a romance, by Clara Reeve. Here he found an 
Arabic tale which so profoundly impressed him that it suggested 
his first great work, " Gebir," which contains the Sea Nymph's 
memorable description of the " sinuous shells of pearly hue." 
This poem by Landor was greatly enjoyed by Shelley. But even 
before Shelley enjoyed it Southey had written of it the follow- 
ing words : " I would go a hundred miles to see the anonymous 
author ;" and " There is a poem called ' Gebir,' and written by 
God knows who, sold for a shilling ; it has miraculous beauties." * 

The attachment between Rose Aylmer and Landor grew 
stronger. But an event occurred which separated the two. 
Rose went to Calcutta, to visit or live with her aunt, Lady Rus- 
sell, wife of Sir Henry Russell, who was at the time a judge in 
Calcutta, and afterwards became chief -justice, and, later, a baronet. 
Landor, in his poem, " Abertawy," indicates both her unwilling- 
ness to go and his own sorrow at her departure : 

" Where is she now ? Galled far away, 
By one she dared not disobey, 
To those proud halls, for youth unfit, 
Where princes stand and judges sit. 

* Busteed, " Echoes from Old Calcutta," p. 335 ff. 



406 INDIRA. 

Where Ganges rolls his widest wave 
She dropped her blossom in the grave ; 
Her noble name she never changed, 
Nor was her nobler heart estranged." 

In March, 1800, the Calcutta Gazette contained the following 
account of her death : 

" On Sunday last, at the house of her uncle, Sir Henry Russell, in the bloom 
of youth and possession of every accomplishment that could gladden or em- 
bellish life, deplored by her relatives and regretted by a society of which she 
was the brightest ornament, the Honble. Miss Aylmer." 

The death of Eose Aylmer saddened Landor to such an extent 
that it gave a sombre tone to much of his writing. A little poem 
to " The Three Eoses " commences as follows : 

" When the buds began to burst 
Long ago with Rose the first, 
I was walking, joyous then, 
Far above all other men, 
Till before us up there stood 
Britonferry's oaken wood, 
Whispering, ' Happy as thou art, 
Happiness and thou must part.'" 

In another poem he sketches an incident of their idyllic life at 
Swansea. They could find no convenient seat. Landor con- 
structed one by plucking up some thorn rose bushes, for which 
he had to pay the penalty of a severe scratch : 

" At last I did it — eight or ten — 
We both were snugly seated then ; 
But then she saw a half-round bead, 
And cried, ' Good gracious, how you bleed !' 
Gently she wiped it off, and bound 
With timorous touch that dreadful wound. 
To lift it from its nurse's knee 
I feared, and quite as much feared she, 
For might it not increase the pain, 
And make the wound burst out again ? 
She coaxed it to lie quiet there, 
With a low tune I bent to hear; 
How close I bent I quite forget, 
I only know I hear it yet." 



ENGLISH WRITERS IN INDIA. 407 

The death of Rose in far-off Calcutta was a great blow to Lan- 
dor. Here is only a part of his famous elegy : 

" Ah, what avails the sceptred race ? 

Ah, what the form divine? 
What every virtue, every grace ? 

Rose Aylrner, all were thine. 
Rose Aylrner, whom these wakeful eyes 

May weep, but never see, 
A night of memories and of sighs 

I consecrate to thee." 

Charles Lamb was so delighted with the tender words that he 
wrote Landor : " Many things I had to say to you which there 
was no time for. One, why should I forget ? 'Tis for Rose Ayl- 
rner, which has a charm I cannot explain. I lived upon it for 
weeks." 

Henry Crabbe Robinson wrote to Landor of a visit to the 
Lambs, as follows : " I have just seen Charles and Mary Lamb 
living in absolute solitude at Enfield. I found your poems lying 
open before Lamb. . . He is ever muttering Rose Aylrner." Lan- 
dor survived Rose sixty-four years. Shortly before his death, in 
Florence, a young Englishman appeared in the old singer's pres- 
ence and handed him a letter from Lord Houghton (Monckton 
Milnes). It was the coming of " the youngest to the oldest singer 
that England bore." The young man afterwards wrote the fol- 
lowing beautiful tribute : 

"And thou, his Florence, to thy trust 

Receive and keep, 
Keep safe his dedicated dust, 

His sacred sleep. 
So shall thy lovers, come from far, 

Mix with thy name, 
As morning-star with evening-star, 

His faultless fame." 

Just now the most striking literary bond between England 
and India is Rudyard Kipling. He was born in Bombay on 
December 30, 1865. His father stands at the head of the School 
of Art in Lahore. Young Kipling, like many English boys 
born in India, was sent to England to be educated. It was at 
"Westward Ho," a watering-place . named after Charles Kings- 



408 



INDIKA. 



•■■: ■■■■■■ 



m 



ley's novel, that he was educated.* Kipling returned to India, 
and very early gave evidence of remarkable literary ability. He 

became connected with the edito- 
rial staff of the Pioneer. He pub- 
lished short stories in the Anglo- 
Indian periodicals. In time small 
volumes appeared in India — "De- 
partmental Ditties," " The Story 
of the Gadsbys," " Studies in Black 
and White," and " Under the Deo- 
dars." Since then have been pub- 
lished his chief works, " Plain Tales 
from the Hills," and also " Soldiers 
Three," " The Courting of Dinah 
Shadd, and Other Stories," and the 
"Phantom 'Rickshaw." Tales not 
in these volumes are appearing in 
the periodicals, and the young au- 
thor's ill-health is the penalty he has had to pay for his rapid 
authorship. His works have produced a remarkable impression. 
The brevity of his stories, the rapid movement, the unfailing hu- 
mor, the knowledge of camp-life, the cynical treatment of societ}^ 
at Simla, and familiarity with the grotesque qualities of the native 
character, place Kipling high above all writers in the English 
language who have revealed the lighter shades of India to the 
Anglo-Saxon peoples. The strong Indian coloring which is 
found in all his pages is a new and welcome element in our 
common English literature. 




KUDYARD KIPLING. 



* Andrew Lang, "Biographical and Critical Sketch," in American edition of 
" The Courting of Dinah Shadd, and Other Stories," pp. vii-xii. 



CHAPTEE XLYI. 

THE RELIGIONS OF INDIA. 
I . — BkAHM ANISM. 

Brahmanism is that system of religion which was taught by 
the Brahman s, or priestly caste, who predominated over all other 
castes of the Aryan conquerors. Even the kings were subordi- 
nate to the Brahman priesthood. To the Rig Yeda, or old col- 
lection of hymns, were added later three other service books. 



km , i i 



'A' iA/!l«^ i ^ ■<*■ ^ I j 




LAMA PBLESTESS, NOBTHEEN INDIA. (LAMAISM IS AN AMPLIFICATION OP 

BUDDHISM.) 

The four Vedas were expounded by the Brahman priests, and 
were declared to be the " Wisdom of God."* These were poeti- 
cal works, and to each was added a Brahmana, or prose work, 
explaining the sacrifice and duty of the priests. The Brah- 



* Hunter, " Brief History of the Indian People," j)p. 50 ff. 



410 INDIRA. 

manas, with, the four Yedas, constitute the sacred writings of 
the Hindus — the Sruti, or "Things Heard from God." The 
Yedas are the inspired psalms ; the Brahmanas, the theology, or 
body of doctrine ; and the Sutras, afterwards added, the " strings 
of pithy sentences" regarding laws and ceremonies. Still later 
additions were made : The Upanishacls, treating of God and the 
soul ; the Aranyakas, " Tracts for the Forest Recluse ;" and the 
Puranas, or " Traditions from of Old." None of these have the 
force of inspiration, but are of high authority, as Suvriti, or 
" The Things to be Remembered." The Brahmanism of to-day, 
as a religious system, does not rest on the ancient Yedas, but 
upon the later scattered and so-called sacred writings." 

The Brahmans had a long conflict with the warrior caste be- 
fore gaining supremacy. They renounced all claims to the gov- 
ernment, and, while not asserting the right to be kings, they 
held that they had sprung from the mouth of the Creator, and 
were superior to all other human beings. They aimed at spir- 
itual distinction. 

What is the result ? They have survived all the revolutions 
of three thousand years. The Brahmans of this day are the un- 
broken line of descendants from the original Aryan conquerors 
of India. While the royal lines have risen and fallen, and dis- 
appeared, the Brahman still lives in the affection, and almost 
divine veneration, of the people. In mental and physical de- 
velopment they are the finest specimens of the Hindu type in 
existence. The Brahman can be distinguished from all others 
by his figure, fair complexion, intellectual features, and scholarly 
tastes. 

The Brahmans, among their own caste, taught the unity of 
God, but left the people to accept the "four castes, the four 
Yedas, and many deities." Brahma was Creator. Yishnu was 
the second person of the trinity, and Siva the third person. The 
many gods in the Hindu pantheon are the diverse and varied 
manifestations of Yishnu and Siva. The Brahmans wrought out 
a system of philosophy, and arranged its doctrines in six schools 
— Darsanas, or Mirrors of Knowledge. They studied astronomy, 
medicine, music, and law. Their two great epics, the Mahab- 
harata and Ramayana, are among the most remarkable produc- 

* Rowe, " Every-dny Life in India," p. 36. 



THE RELIGIONS OF INDIA. 413 

tions in the whole history of literature. The Brahmans spoke 
and taught the Sanskrit language, but the common people spoke 
a simpler form of the same language, or the Prakrit language. 
The Sanskrit became in time a dead language, but was the sole 
language of the sacred writings. 

II. — Buddhism in India, 
b.c. 543— a.d. 1000. 

The historical position of Buddhism is a revolt of the Aryan 
races against the growth of caste distinctions.* 

The dynasties professing the Brahman faith ruled India with- 
out serious obstacles until the rise of Buddhism. The King of 
Kapilavastu had a son, Gautama Buddha, who was meditative 
and sympathetic. He left his father's palace, withdrew to a 
cave, sent his horse and jewels back to his father, cut off his 
long hair of the warrior, put on the rags of a beggar, and 
preached the new faith of human brotherhood and equality. 
He gave up his beloved wife and only son, and, with his five 
disciples, became a wanderer in the jungles. 

This sacrifice of his domestic ties, made when Gautama was 
thirty years old, is the central fact of the great Buddhistic 
faith. It is embalmed in the sacred writings as the Great Be- 
nunciation — the most tender and beautiful part of all the 
writings of the ancient Indian world. Edwin Arnold, in his 
"Light of Asia," has furnished the best translation in any 
modern language. Gautama spent six years in severe penance. 
No self -mortification was too severe. He searched for peace 
of mind, and, like St. Francis of Assisi and Ignatius Loyola of 
the later years, regarded torture and self-abnegation as his 
only pathway to mental calm. But still he had no peace. He 
concluded that he had taken the wrong way. He now gave up 
all his penance, came out of his cave, and began to preach a bet- 
ter life to the people. His five disciples forsook him.- He was 
left alone, and, while sitting under a fig-tree, in the new peace 
which had come to him, it is said that demons brandished 
flaming weapons about him. This was his Great Tempta- 
tion, and out of it he came unscathed, and with a clear, view 

* Kunte, " The Vicissitudes of Aryan Civilization in India," Bombay, 1880, 
p. xxii. 



414 INDIKA. 

of duty, and was ever afterwards known as Buddha, " The En- 
lightened." * 

Buddha now appeared as a public teacher, in the Deer Forest, 
near Benares. The people gathered about him in great num- 
bers. Women and lowly men were his first disciples. In three 
months about sixty professed his faith. He sent forth his preach- 
ers with these words : " Go ye now, and preach the most excel- 
lent law." During the four months of the rainy season he stayed 
at his little hut in a bamboo grove, and preached to the multi- 
tudes who came to hear him. They were from every class — the 
rich and the poor, the wise and the ignorant, princes and beggars. 
During the remaining eight months of the year he wandered 
throughout Northwestern India, preaching his doctrines with in- 
tense energy. He went back to his father's palace, not to rule, 
but to convert. 

Buddha had gone out as a prince, and now came back as a 
beggar preacher, with shaven head, coarse raiment, and the beg- 
gar's bowl in his hand. His aged father received him kindly, 
and listened to his message patiently. Buddha's son, whom he 
had left an infant, was now a full-grown man. He adopted his 
father's faith. The fond wife, who was still alive, was fascinated 
by the new doctrines, and became one of the first nuns in Bud- 
dhistic history. 

Buddha was a public teacher about forty-four years. He died 
under a fig-tree, when eighty years old, b.c. 543. He divided 
his last night between preaching and comforting a weeping dis- 
ciple. Among his last words were : " Be earnest, be thoughtful, 
be holy. Keep steadfast watch over your own hearts. He who 
holds fast to the law and discipline, and faints not, shall cross 
the ocean of life, and make an end of sorrow. . . . The world is 
fast bound in fetters. I now give it deliverance, as a physician 
who brings heavenly medicine. Keep your mind on my teach- 
ing. All other things change. This- changes not. ~No more 
shall I speak to you. I desire to depart. I desire the Eternal 
Best" (Nirvana). 

Thus lived and died the man who founded a religion, which, 
with all its absurdities, has the largest number of adherents in the 
world professing any one faith. Its history abounds in anoma- 

* Hunter, " Brief History of the Indian People," pp. 65 ff. 



THE RELIGIONS OF INDIA. 



415 



lies. One is that, having ruled India for centuries, it was at 
last expelled from the land which gave it birth, and its multi- 
tudes of disciples are to be found in Ceylon, Tibet, China, Japan, 
and the other Oriental countries to which its tireless mission- 
aries have borne it. 




The doctrines of Buddha were few and simple. He found the 
Brahmanic caste in all its fulness and iron inflexibility. He did 
not teach disloyalty to the Brahman priesthood, but respect for 



416 INDIRA. 

it. However, he declared that Brahmans are not mediators be- 
tween God and man, but that real caste consists in moral quality. 
Men are divided according to their merit. Salvation is open to 
all alike. We do not gain divine favor by offering sacrifices, but 
by living pure lives. Misery here, in this life, is the result of sin 
in a former life. We gather, or shall gather, only what we sow. 
The highest future joy is eternal calm. Self-control, kindness to 
all men, reverence for the life of all the brute creation, were the 
three fundamental doctrines of practical Buddhism. 

When Buddha died, five hundred of his followers met in a 
great cave near Patna and formed the First Council of Bud- 
dhism. Their object was to collect and formulate the great mas- 
ter's teachings. They chanted his whole system, arranging it in 
three divisions — Buddha's words to his disciples, his code of dis- 
cipline, and his system of doctrine. The Second Council was 
held a century later (b.c. 443). Its object was to settle disputes 
which had arisen among the Buddhistic followers. 

Now came the period of the popular expansion of this remark- 
able faith. It extended all over Northern India, quietly sup- 
planting Brahmanism in every class of society. For two cen- 
turies it continued its quiet work of gaining disciples and secur- 
ing a strong hold on the popular mind. It was now, however, 
on the eve of its greatest expansive effort in India. Asoka, King 
of Magadha, or Behar, became a convert to Buddhism, about b.c. 
257. He was the Constantine of his times, and established the 
new faith throughout his broad empire. 

Asoka turned all his power as a ruler towards the propagation 
of his new faith, and made it the religion of his state. He dotted 
his broad kingdom with eighty-four thousand Buddhist monas- 
teries, and the land is known to this day as Behar, the Land 
of the Monasteries,* He is said to have supported sixty-four 
thousand Buddhist priests, f At one time he sent off five hun- 
dred Buddhist priests to convert Tibet. His measures to make 
his faith the religion of the state were successful, and show at 
once the skill of the ruler and the zeal of the reformer. In the 
year 244 b.c he convened at Patna the third great Buddhist 

* Clougb, " From Darkness to Light : A Story of the Telugu Awakening," 
p. 281. 

t Hunter, "Brief History of the Indian People," p. 69. 



THE RELIGIONS OF INDIA. 417 

Council. One thousand elders constituted this august body. 
Heresies had arisen, and these were now corrected, and Bud- 
dhism received that form which it has ever since retained. 

Asoka issued his decrees, and engraved them on rocks, in caves, 
and on pillars of granite. Some of these great graven pillars 
still remain, as in Delhi and Allahabad, and are among the 
most striking and venerable of all the memorials of the ancient 
world in any country. He had a special Department of Kelig- 
ion and Justice, whose functions were to protect the purity of 
doctrine and to provide means for the propagation of the faith. 
His monasteries were made the centres of religious zeal. The 
great monastery of Nalanda alone served as a glowing fire 
for distributing Buddhist zeal far and wide. It sheltered ten 
thousand monks and novices of the eighteen Buddhist schools, 
who here studied all the sciences known to the Eastern world, 
such as theology, medicine, law, and philosophy, and were sup- 
ported by the royal treasury. 

Asoka collected the sacred books into a Canon of Sacred 
Scriptures, and caused them to be written, in the Magaclha lan- 
guage, the vernacular of his kingdom. This is the version which 
still prevails among the Buddhists of Southern India, Ceylon, 
Burma, and the Eastern Archipelago. He sent out missionaries 
through every part of his dominions, and, not stopping within 
his own country, he sent them far beyond, into other lands. He 
regarded himself as the divinely appointed agent to spread the 
faith throughout the world. All lands and languages, all classes 
of people, must be visited, and the doctrines expounded, and the 
multitudes persuaded to accept the doctrines of Buddha. But 
no violence must be used. The sword must never be drawn from 
its scabbard. All men must be treated as brothers. The beg- 
gar was as good as the chief. If he lived better, then he was 
better. Asoka, however, did not limit his kindness to human 
beings. While he established hospitals for his fellow-men, he 
did the same service for beasts. His whole kingdom was 
one vast Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. 
He issued an edict providing a system of medical aid for 
beasts. For the stranger and the traveller he made ample 
provision. For the pedestrian he planted shade trees and 
dug wells along the highways. His one thought was the wel- 
fare of his people and their beasts, but that this universal 
27 



418 INDIRA. 

welfare was only to be brought about by the propagation of 
Buddhism. 

The last great Buddhist Council was held under the Scythian 
King Kanishka, about a.d. 40. The sacred writings were re- 
vised, and it is this version, or the Northern Canon of Bud- 
dhism, which still serves the disciples of Buddha in Tibet, Tar- 
tary, China, and Japan. 

At no time, however, was the religion of the Brahmans com- 
pletely conquered. It was simply superseded for the time by 
one and then another ruler who were devoted Buddhists. "When 
the Brahmans gained a little power they pursued their opponents 
with bitter persecution. They destroyed the Buddhist monas- 
teries, tore down the temples, and mutilated the sculptures. 
There is, however, no record of a general war of extermina- 
tion of the Buddhists. But the opposition was steady and long- 
continued, and the issue lay long in the balance. Sometimes 
the two faiths approached each other, a result brought about by 
a spirit of compromise in the ruler. For example, King Sila- 
ditya called a general council a.d. 624. His object was to ex- 
tend Buddhism, but he made a great demonstration of catholicity 
by erecting on the first day a statue of Buddha ; on the second, 
one of the Brahman Sun-God ; and on the third, one of the 
Hindu Siva. Buddhist doctors disputed with Brahman doctors, 
and the Buddhists with each other. 

Buddhism in India had now reached its zenith. About a.d. 
700 it rapidly declined, and by a.d. 800 Brahmanism was re- 
stored to its old place. The Buddhists seem to have been rent 
by internal feuds, and their downfall as a great religious body in 
India is mainly attributable to that cause. So rapid was its de- 
cline in India that, by the tenth century, it was well-nigh oblit- 
erated. Kashmir and Orissa, lying far removed from the centre 
of knowledge and influence, were the only regions which con- 
tinued true to the teachings of Buddha. By a.d. 900 only a few 
traces of it could be found anywhere in India. But Buddhism, 
while driven out of the land of its birth, has gained a firm 
foothold in other lands. Never did a prophet in his own 
country find so numerous a following in other countries. His 
followers number to-day five hundred millions of human be- 
ings, or forty per cent, of the population of the world.* It 

* Hunter, " Brief History of the Indian People," pp. 70 ff. 



THE RELIGIONS OF INDIA. 



419 



should awaken the most serious thought of every believer in 
Christ that the Buddhists are by far the most numerous relig- 
ious body on earth. From Afghanistan in the west, its empire 
extends northward and southward, until it reaches Japan. Hard- 
ly less than three hundred languages and dialects are used by its 
devotees, in which to adore the memory of Buddha and proclaim 
the brotherhood of man. From the ice-huts of northern Tibet 
down to the palm-groves of Singapore on the equator, its people 
imitate the holy calm of the founder of their faith, and sing with 
ecstatic fervor the Great Renunciation. While the only part of 




THE TEMPLE YARD, CONJEVERAM. 



India proper which still retains the Buddhist faith is Burma, the 
easternmost part of the empire, some of its fundamental quali- 
ties have incorporated themselves into the very fibre of the In- 
dian character, and can be clearly seen in the Hinduism of later 
times. 

" The noblest survivals of Buddhism in India," says Hunter, 
" are to be found, not among any peculiar body, but in the re- 
ligion of the whole Hindu people ; in that principle of the brother- 
hood of man, with the re-assertion of which each new revival of 



420 . INDIKA. 

Hinduism starts ; in the asylum which the great Hindu sect of 
Yaishnavas affords to women who have fallen victims to caste 
rules, to the widow and the outcast ; in that gentleness and char- 
ity to all men which take the place of a poor-law in India and 
give a high significance to the half -satirical epithet of the " Mild 
Hindu." * The large part of the Buddhist population of India, 
leaving out Burma, is in the Presidency of Bengal. It consists 
of about one hundred and sixty-seven thousand people, who 
dwell in the districts contiguous to Burma, and in the remote 
valleys of the Himalayas. One of the most significant features 
of the permanent effects of Buddhism in India is to be found in 
the fact that the English government, in providing public in- 
struction for Burma, made the ancient Buddhist monasteries the 
basis of its new system. 

III. — Hinduism. 

Hinduism is the direct outgrowth of Brahmanism, but having 
accretions from Buddhism and other faiths. It is the prevailing 
popular religion of India to-day. The religion of Brahma was a 
system of calm spiritual pantheism. The Hindu religion is based 
on the worship of the personal deities Siva and Yishnu, who 
are the emanations of Brahma. Here is a large field for divisions 
and sects. There are five sects of Hinduism : 

1. Worshippers of Siva (Saivas). 

2. Worshippers of Yishnu (Yaishnavas). 

3. Worshippers of the female personifications of divine power, 
regarded as the Avives of the deities (Saktas). 

4. Worshippers of Ganesh or Ganpati as god of luck or good- 
fortune (Ganapatyas). 

5o Worshippers of the sun (Sauras). 

While these are the great general groups of Hindu believers, 
there are various subdivisions. For example, there are worship- 
pers of demons and spirits ; of heroes and men ; of ancestors ; of 
animals ; of plants and trees ; and of natural objects, such as the 
sun, moon, rivers, rocks, and stocks, f 

The complex character of the Hindu system can therefore be 
clearly observed. While Brahmanism is its key-note, the tones 

* " Brief History of the Indian People," p. 74. 

t Monier Williams, in " Religious Life and Thought in India," gives an 
excellent account of the Hindu sects and their doctrinal system. 



THE RELIGIONS OF INDIA. 421 

are so numerous and varied that it is difficult to separate or enu- 
merate them. There is no fixity in the system. In fact, it is 
not a system, but a string of beliefs, often heterogeneous and 
contradictory, which have been gathered up during the slow 
passage of three thousand years. " It is next to impossible," 
says Barth, " to say exactly what Hinduism is, where it begins, 
where it ends. Diversity is its very essence, and its proper mani- 
festation is sect — sect in constant mobility." * 

Political changes have left their impress on this multiform 
thing which passes by the name of Hinduism. European thought 
has not been without an impress upon it. Monier Williams very 
appropriately calls it " a complex congeries of creeds and doc- 
trines, which in its gradual accumulation may be compared to 
the Ganges, which receives its tributaries from every side, bears 
them on over a vast area of country, and finally resolves itself 
into an intricate Delta of tortuous streams and jungly marshes." 
The same author further says : " Nor is it difficult to account 
for this complexity. The Hindu religion is a reflection of the 
composite character of the Hindus, who are not one people, but 
many. It is based on the idea of universal receptivity. It has 
ever aimed at accommodating itself to circumstances, and has 
carried on the process of adaptation through more than three 
thousand years. It has first borne with, and then, so to speak, 
swallowed, digested, and assimilated something from all creeds, 
or, like a vast hospitable mansion, it has opened its doors to all 
comers ; it has not refused a welcome to applicants of every 
grade, from the highest to the lowest, if only willing to acknowl- 
edge the spiritual headship of the Brahmans and adopt caste 
rules. In this manner it has held out the right hand of brother- 
hood to the Fetish- worshipping aborigines of India ; it has stooped 
to the demonolatry of various savage tribes ; it has not scrupled 
to encourage the adoration of the fish, the boar, the serpent, 
trees, plants, stones, and devils ; it has permitted a descent to 
the most degrading cults of the Dravidian races ; while at the 
same time it has ventured to rise from the most grovelling prac- 
tices to the loftiest heights of philosophical speculation ; it has 
not hesitated to drink in thoughts from the very fountain of 
Truth, and owes not a little to Christianity itself. 

* "The Religious of India," pp. 153, 154. 



-> 



422 INDIRA. 

" Strangest of all, it has dissipated the formidable organiza- 
tion which for a long period confronted Brahmanism, and intro- 
duced doctrines subversive of sacerdotalism. It has artfully 
adopted Buddhism, and gradually superseded that competing 
system by drawing its adherents within the pale of its own com- 
munion. In this complex quality of Hinduism one can easily 
see an element of both strength and weakness. The Hindu be- 
liever can change his method of defence with all the expertness 
and suppleness of an acrobat. Beaten on one line, he can be- 
take himself to another. If he tire of one series of beliefs, he 
may find rest under another. His system has all the advantage 
of a banyan-tree. If a little too much exposed to the sun beside 
one trunk, he can betake himself to another, for the light and 
shade are constantly changing with the circuit of the sun. On 
the other hand, as a resisting force, Hinduism has all the serious 
disadvantage of a want of unity. Its forces are everywhere di- 
vided. Some of its adherents stand at opposite poles. There is 
a large body of Hindus at the present time who have no faith 
whatever in their own system. They expect it to die, and know 
that the hour of death is only a question of time. This want of 
solidarity and unity will account in a measure for the success of 
Christian missions among the Hindus. The harvest has been 
far greater than among the Mohammedans, whose system has 
the one advantage of unity." * 

The division of the Hindus into castes is endless. The writers 
on the subject get lost in the mazes of its enumeration. Dr. 
"Wilson, of Bombay, only carried his work on "Caste" to two 
volumes, when he was interrupted by death, and then had not 
exhausted his description of one caste. Sherring declares that 
under the general Brahman caste there are eighteen hundred 
and eighty-six separate subdivisions. But the caste system, as 
now existing, is no part of the ancient Aryan civilization. The 
Vedas never taught it.f 

IV. — Jainism. 

The Jain system stands midway between Buddhism and Brah- 
manism. It originated about a.d. 600, and declined after a.d. 

* Monier Williams, " Religious Life and Thought in India," pp. 57, 58. 
t Wilson, "Indian Caste," vol. ii. p. 116. 



THE RELIGIONS OF INDIA. 



423 




CAR, SIXTY FEET HIGH, USED FOR THE BRAHMA FESTIVAL, CONJEVERAM. 
(DRAWN BY THREE THOUSAND MEN.) 

1200. It seems to have arisen out of a spirit of accommodation, 
by which a common ground of harmony could be arrived at. It 
was formerly believed to be an offshoot of Buddhism, but it is 
now proven to have been of independent origin.* The Jains 

* Kaye, " Christianity in India," p. 125. 



424 INBIKA. 

lay great stress on certain saints, whom they advance to an im- 
portance even superior to their gods. They retain the Brahman 
arrangement of caste. Their chief saints are twenty -four in num- 
ber, and are called Tirthankaras. These, by their self-discipline, 
have crossed the ocean of human existence, and belong to a rank 
superior to the gods. 

The principal territory in which the Jains have prevailed 
has been Gujerat and Kanara.* In the eleventh century they 
were persecuted in Madura, their leaders impaled, and the re- 
ligion in that locality finally broken up by Kuna Pandiyor. 
They are to be found, however, here and there in many parts of 
the country. They have always been distinguished for their lit- 
erary taste. Some of the richest contributions to Tamil litera- 
ture have been the work of Jain writers. That language owes 
a large measure of its refined quality to Jain authors. 

On the general religious life of the country, however, the 
Jains have been of little influence, and have always occupied 
the place of an obscure, but most highly respectable, sect. They 
are not confined to any one locality, but are scattered all over 
the country as merchants, ship-owners, goldsmiths, and other 
tradesmen. f 

" The Jains possess," says Temple, " many fine structures in 
different parts of India. The adherents of the Jain faith occupy 
the summits of the forest-clad Parasnath, which overlooks the 
plains of western Bengal, and of Abu, which stands as a lofty 
outwork of the Aravalli range. Their religious stronghold in the 
present time is on the heights of the solitary Satrunj Mountain, 
near Palitana, in the peninsula of Kathiawar. The numerous 
cupolas, obelisks, and spires, often bright with the whitest mar- 
ble, seem to pierce the sky. The shrines are laden with the 
weight of gorgeous offerings, sent by the wealthy members of 
the sect from almost every populous city in the empire. From 
the terraces of the edifices, half temples, half fortresses, is to 
be seen an extensive view of the rich plains, once studded with 
historic cities, of which the names alone survive, even the sites 
being untraceable." \ 

* Pope, "Text-Book of Indian History," pp. 41, 42. 

f For an excellent account of the Jains, see Pocoke, " India in Greece," Ap- 
pendix, p. 370 ff. 

% Temple, "India in 1880," p. 31. 



THE RELIGIONS OF INDIA. 425 

V. — Mohammedanism. 

The religion of Mohammed was introduced into India by mili- 
tary force. Very shortly after the conquest of Arabia, and the 
adoption of the Quran as the scriptures of Mohammed, the zeal- 
ous advocates of the new faith looked towards India as a fit field 
not only for the propagation of the faith, but for political em- 
pire. The establishment of the great Mogul empire was the 
practical instalment of the Mohammedan faith as the great re- 
ligion of the country. But no measures were adopted for the 
suppression of the Hindu worship. The temples were profaned, 
and much violence shown during the period of conquest, but the 
existing religions were tolerated. At no time was there any 
great break-up of the Hindu worship. The prevalence of Mo- 
hammedanism never existed apart from political power. Wher- 
ever a Mohammedan prince ruled, his religion was supported, 
and gained a measure of strength. But the religion has never 
gained a strength commensurate with the political importance 
of Mohammedan rule in India. At the present time there is 
about one Mohammedan to every five Hindus. The Moham- 
medans are at the present time more difficult to reach by Prot- 
estant effort than any other class of Indian people. 

VI.— The Sikhs. 

This sect arose from a disposition to harmonize Mohammedan- 
ism and Brahmanism. It was founded by ISTanak, who was born 
near Lahore in the year 1469, and died in 1538. He was origi- 
nally a Hindu, but renounced idolatry, and his " idea was to bring 
about a union between Hindus and Mohammedans on the com- 
mon ground of a belief in one God." The elements of his faith 
are to be found in the teachings of Kabir, whose fundamental 
thought was the unity of God, and that every man should sub- 
mit himself to a spiritual guide (Guru), and remain in complete 
subjection to him through his whole life. Nanak developed the 
fundamental principles of Kabir's system, and his followers called 
themselves Sikhs, or " Disciples," in acknowledgment of their 
dependence on their pastors or Gurus.* So soon as one looks 
closely into Nanak's principles, it becomes clear that they were 

* Monier Williams, " Religious Thought and Life in India," p. 158 ff. 



426 INDIRA. 

more pantheistic than monotheistic. Brahma, called by the 
special name of Hari (same as Vishjiu), is the author of all being. 
He does not create, but evolves out of himself. He is thus an 
expansive force, and the expansions are really manifestations and 
essences of himself. 

ISTanak was the first great Guru of the Sikh sect, and he was 
succeeded by nine others. These ten Gurus gave firmness and 
power to the entire sect, each Guru adding some new force and 
giving some new direction to the strange sect. A remarkable 
change occurred within the close body of the Sikhs. From be- 
ing a merely religious communion, whose home was in the ex- 
treme northwest of India, they developed a singular capacity for 
organization, social power, and military strength. The Mogul 
emperors became alarmed. The Sikhs had been in the most 
friendly relation with the Mohammedan rulers, and it was 
known that the cardinal principle of the Moslem faith was also 
claimed to be theirs — namely, the divine unity. But no sooner 
did the Sikhs begin to organize as a strong military body than 
the Mogul empire regarded them as seditious, and sought to sup- 
press them. The most bitter hostility now prevailed. The Mo- 
gul soldiers were used to conquer and scatter them. But it was 
of no avail. The Sikhs lived on, and fattened on the decaying 
carcass of the Mogul empire. 

The fourth Guru, Ram-das, saw the necessity of a religious 
centre, and purchased the tank called Amritsar, or Lake of 
Nectar. Here he taught the Sikh doctrines, and attracted large 
throngs of devout followers. Later, Amritsar developed into a 
city, and the Golden Temple in the tank or lake became the 
sacred altar of the Sikh community. Arjun, the fifth Guru, 
compiled the first Sikh bible — the Granth, or Book. The ninth 
Guru, Teg -Bahadur, developed remarkable military qualities. 
The Mogul emperor, Aurangzeb, saw his power, captured him, 
and so tortured him that the Guru persuaded a fellow-captive to 
put an end to his sufferings. But the emperor failed to over- 
power the sect. It became more bitter than ever. 

The tenth Guru was Govind-Singh, the son of the ninth Guru. 
This man became a great military leader. He gave to the whole 
Sikh sect a martial quality. He converted it into a vast and 
fearless army. He resolved on national independence. He 
abolished caste, and declared the perfect equality of all men. 



THE RELIGIONS OF INDIA. 



42? 



He adopted certain regulations for the uniting of his people into 
a solid military force. He added the name Singh (Lion) to their 
other names ; the hair must be worn long ; a sword, in token of 
perpetual hostility to the Mussulmans, must always be carried ; 
they must wear short trousers, and never use tobacco ; each dis- 
ciple must be admitted by a certain baptismal rite called Pahul ; 
and an oath must be taken never to mix with certain excommu- 
nicated persons, nor worship idols, nor bow to any person except 
a Sikh Guru, and never to turn his back upon a foe.* 

War became the one passion and employment of the Sikhs. 




NAEENDRA TANK, PtTRI. 



They acquired territory, and in time the whole Panjab came 
under their dominion. As the Mogul empire declined they rose 
in power. JSTo braver soldiers ever fought on an Indian battle- 
field. Their weapons, to this day, are among the most formida- 
ble implements of warfare ever forged. The weapons of the 
Gurus were believed to be holy, and were even worshipped. 
Under the tenth Guru the sect assumed a decidedly Hindu 
coloring. Many of the Sikhs of this day adopt caste, wear 
the Brahminical thread, keep Hindu festivals, observe Hindu 



* For an excellent account of the Sikhs, see Ludlow, " British India," Ap- 
pendix C, vol. i. pp. 296 ff. 



428 INDIEA. 

ceremonials, and even present offerings to idols in Hindu 
temples.* 

As the English gained power elsewhere in India, it was essen- 
tial that the Panjab be conquered and occupied, as it controlled 
the Afghan passes into India. The Sikhs had long held that 
province with an iron hand. The way they treated invaders 
was a warning to all who might be rash enough to engage in 
the same venture. In 1751 it had been separated from the Mo- 
gul empire, and conducted its affairs according to its own will. 
The name Sikh was synonymous with a brave and victorious sol- 
dier. The English came into conflict with the Sikhs in 1808, but 
the latter were not thoroughly conquered, and the Panjab added 
to the British dominions in India, until 1849. The wars for the 
possession of the Panjab were very costly, in life and treasure, 
to the English. 

The great final conflict for the possession of the Panjab was 
fought between the English and the Sikhs at Gujerat, near Na- 
zirabad, the scene of the victory of Alexander the Great over 
Porus. The Sikhs had risked everything on this one battle, and 
they lost all. Among the great spoils in this final battle was the 
Koh-i-nur — Hill of Light — then the largest diamond in the world. 
It had passed from one Sikh ruler to another, after a long his- 
tory of inheritance. Now it is a part of the royal regalia of 
England, and is worn in a brooch by Queen Victoria at her 
levees. It has been so cut down that now it is the fifth in size, 
though far the most brilliant. 

VII. — The Eeligions of the Hill Tribes. 

The Hill Tribes of India practise a worship of the grossest 
character. Some of them are so degraded as to have almost no 
religion at all, while others make a near approach to either the 
Hindu, Mohammedan, or Buddhist faith, and still others com- 
bine certain parts of both Hinduism and Mohammedanism. In 
many cases it may be said that these aboriginal tribes present 
as striking a contrast with the great religions of India — Hindu- 
ism and Mohammedanism — as the faith of the American Indians 
with the Christianity of their European conquerors. 

Of the tribes of the Central Provinces the Khonds are the chief. 

* Monier Williams, " Religious Thought and Life in India," pp. 177, 178. 



THE RELIGIONS OF INDIA. 



429 



They are of very ancient origin, as their name is mentioned in 
the Puranas.* Some of the Khonds have become mixed with the 
surrounding people, but there is a large class of unmixed Khonds. 




PRINCIPAL GROTTO OF KANHERI. 



These worship a common deity called Burra Deo, or other names, 
which is believed to be a representation of the sun. In former 

* Rowney, " The Wild Tribes of India," pp. 2, 14 ff. 






430 INDIRA. 

times human sacrifices were offered to him, but more recently 
the sacrifice is an image made with straw or other similar ma- 
terials. Other deities venerated by them are representations of 
the moon and stars. But there are no temples, the places of 
worship being spaces in the open air, enclosed by circular walls 
of loose stone, while the objects worshipped are represented by 
two or three large stones stuck upright and smeared with oil. The 
Bhils worship objects representing the sun and moon. They adore 
their ancestors, the tiger, and the infernal spirits. The faith of 
the Kolis is a very near approach to Hinduism. The Kattis rec- 
ognize the sun as their chief divinity, their worship consisting of 
simply looking at the sun and invoking his favor. 

The Kols, who live in Bengal, believe in a supreme being 
named Sing Bonga, who is represented by the sun. The moon 
is believed to be his wife, and the stars his daughters. There is 
a large number of local and sylvan gods, but no images are made 
of them, neither is there any worship beyond sacrifices. The 
Sontals also worship the sun-god, and venerate the spirit of 
Bora Manjee, a deceased and canonized chief. The Bagh-Bhoot, 
or tiger-spirit, is another object of reverence, and several tribes 
worship the living tiger. The Oraons recognize the sun as their 
supreme deity, but do not pray to him, on the ground that he 
does not send evil. Ghosts, sorceries, and witchcrafts, as with 
most of the wild tribes, are a part of the popular faith. The 
Pahariahs, while believing in a sun-god as the supreme being, 
accept individual tutelary deities. They believe in a future state 
and transmigration of souls. 

In the Madras Presidency the Khonds are a leading native 
race. They worship the sun and the earth, as well as subor- 
dinate deities — such as rain, spring, wealth, the chase, war, 
boundaries, and judgment. The Todas worship a god who is 
represented by a rude stone. Of the Niadis the only thing 
known of their religion is that they sacrifice to a female spirit 
yearly. In the Northwest Provinces are the Limbus, who affect 
the Hinduism of the Nepal, but really have their own gods 
and goddesses, and a supreme deity. The Bhutias are for the 
most part followers of Buddha, or the Llama. In the North- 
eastern Provinces are the Abors, who worship sylvan deities ; 
the Khamptis, who are Buddhists ; and the Nagas, who worship 
a plurality of deities. 



THE RELIGIONS OF INDIA. 



431 



Missionary labor has already been inaugurated among the Hill 
Tribes, and with good success. The Santals and Kols have been 
a special object of labor by German missionaries. Henry Baker 
has labored among the Hill-men in Travancore, where there is now 
a community of two thousand Aryan Christians.* The Oraons 
have been successfully reached. As long ago as 1871 there were 
twenty-one thousand Christians among them.f 

* Mateer, " Native Life in Travancore," p. 79. 
t Caldwell, "The Languages of India," p. 7. 



SACRIFICIAL SPOON, OLD BRASS, HINDU. 



CHAPTER XLYIL 

PROTESTANT MISSIONS IN INDIA. 

"While India has attracted the commercial and military spirit 
of the West, its great spiritual needs have not been less potent 
in attracting the evangelist. The beginning was simple and 
obscure, but abundant in faith and sacrifice. 

ZlEGENBALG AND PlUTSCHAU. 

Tranquebar, a little town 180 miles south of Madras, was the 
cradle of Protestant missions in the Orient. That the mission- 
aries from Denmark began their magnificent work here belongs 
to the region of religious romance. On July 9, 1706, Ziegenbalg" 
and Plutschau landed here. Why should they come to this ob- 
scure and insignificant place ? Simply because Tranquebar was 
a little possession of Denmark. It became a Danish settlement 
through the accident of a shipwreck. In 1618 Rolant Crape, 
the captain of a Danish East India ship, was shipwrecked here. 

The King of Tanjor saw in this accident an advantage. Be- 
lieving it to be a good opportunity to show a kindness to the 
Danes, he made over the town of Tranquebar to Crape, and the 
Danish flag floated over the little fort of Tranquebar. Frederick 
IV., the Danish king, instructed his court preacher, Dr. Lutkens, 
to take measures for sending out missionaries to Tranquebar, 
which early grew into an important colony. Bartholomew Zie- 
genbalg and Henry Plutschau, who had been students in the 
University of Halle, were summoned to the Danish court, and 
received directions concerning their work. They sailed in the 
Sophia Hedwick on November 29, 1705, and arrived at Tranque- 
bar July 9, 1706. Contrary to all expectation, their reception 
was far from cordial. The opposition did not come from the 
natives, but from the Danish colonists. The latter told the mis- 
sionaries that there was no possibility of their succeeding. This 
seems to have been a hope rather than a belief. The colonists 



PROTESTANT MISSIONS IN INDIA. 



433 



wanted no missionaries. They gave the two missionaries no re- 
ception into a house, but left them all day in the tropical sun, 
first outside the town gates and then in the market-place. But 
Altrup, the secretary of the colony, afterwards secured them a 
. lodging-place in his father-in-law's house. 

The missionaries immediately began to learn Tamil and Portu- 
guese. In five years Ziegenbalg finished the ]STew Testament in 




CREMATION-GROUND AND SACRED SHRINES OF PASHTJPATI. 

Tamil. By 1719, the year of his death, he had translated the 
Old Testament as far as Kuth. Schultz, who arrived the same 
year, resumed the work and finished it. This man went to 
Madras and translated the whole Bible into Hindustani.* The 
first converts in Tranquebar were five slaves. These were bap- 
tized in May, 1707. Then came schools and churches. Such 



Badley, " Indian Missionary Directory," 3d ed. Calcutta, 1886. 



28 



434 INDIRA. ' 

was the beginning of the Protestant efforts for the evangeliza- 
tion of India.* 

Schwarz. 

Schwarz, who was destined to prove an inspiration to the 
cause of missions the world over, arrived in Southern India in 
1759, and, without waiting for a critical knowledge of the Tamil, 
began at once with a few words and in broken speech. Between 
the beginning of his work and the end there lay a period of 
forty-eight beautiful and consecrated years. If we consider all 
the qualities which constitute a sublime missionary life, the ca- 
reer of this man is almost without a parallel in missionary his- 
tory. In calm and patient labor, in the confidence which he in- 
spired among even the heathen who refused his message, and in 
the results of his work, he stands first in the lengthening cata- 
logue of immortal missionaries. 

With the death of Schwarz, in 1798, the first period of Prot- 
estant missions came to an end. The difficulties had been nu- 
merous, and of such magnitude as to terrify any spirits less 
brave than the heroes who made the first Protestant attack 
upon the dense mass of Hindu paganism. 

Carey, Marshman, and "Ward. 

Kiernander, the first Protestant missionary in Bengal, was 
invited thither by Clive. But the arrival of William Carey in 
Calcutta, in 1793, began a new era, not alone in Indian missions, 
but in the history of universal evangelization. He was joined 
afterwards by Marshman and Ward, and the three planned for 
the occupation of all Northern India. Frederick VI., King of 
Denmark, sent word to them that he had taken their new col- 
lege under his special protection, and expressed his great pleasure 
at the settlement of the missionaries in Serampore. 

The forces of this mission radiated in all directions. The 
British government in India, with the Marquis of Wellesley at 
the head, was fearful of the Serampore press. It was thought 
that it would breed treason to the state, and orders were given 
for its suppression. But the objections were finally overcome, 
and the missionary work proceeded without embarrassment. 

* Baclley, article in Central Christian Advocate, June 25, 1887. 



PROTESTANT MISSIONS IN INDIA. 435 

Martyn. 

Henry Martyn, a chaplain of the East India Company, ar- 
rived in 1806, and began his brief but remarkable career in the 
valley of the Ganges. His success in philological achievements 
are, perhaps, without an equal. In less than two years after his 
arrival he had translated the New Testament into Hindustani, 
written a commentary in the same language on our Lord's para- 
bles, and begun a Persian translation of the New Testament. 
He was consumed by his passionate zeal for souls. He died in 
1812, at the age of thirty-one, at Tokat, Asia Minor, on his way 
home from Persia to England. His body lies where he died, and 
his tombstone bears the following inscription, written by Lord 
Macaulay : 

" Here Martyn lies ! In manhood's early bloom 
The Christian found a Pagan tomb ; 
Religion, sorrowing o'er her favorite son, 
Points to the glorious trophies which he won — 
Eternal trophies, not with slaughter red, 
Not stained with tears of hopeless captives shed, 
But trophies of the Cross; for that dear Name 
Thro' every form of clanger, death, and shame, 
Onward he journeyed to a happier shore, 
"Where danger, death, and shame are known no more." 

Martyn left behind an example which has been a singular force 
in leading many, in both England and America, to enter upon 
the missionary career. 

Judson and Newell. 

In 1812 two American missionaries, Judson and Newell, ar- 
rived in Calcutta. The British government, which had not yet 
learned that the Christian religion was a greater force to pre- 
serve India to England than the army itself, ordered their ex- 
pulsion from the country. They were, however, permitted to 
go to Mauritius. After 1813, there were no further expulsions 
of missionaries. In due time we find Judson in Burma, begin- 
ning that career of patient and unremitting labor which has 
made his name illustrious in the annals of the Church universal. 
"With the year 1830 the period of missionary limitations in India 
came to an end. The Bishop's College in Calcutta and the Bap- 



436 INDIKA. 

tist College in Serampore had been doing invaluable work, each 
in its own way, towards translating the Scriptures, establishing 
schools, and building up a Christian life among the native popu- 
lations. The British government had learned that its interests in 
India lay in the same path with the evangelization of the country. 

Duff. 

Alexander Duff, a young man fresh from the University of 
Edinburgh, arrived in Calcutta, and immediately began to labor. 
He conceived the idea that there were still too many concessions 
to paganism in the old methods, and that the proper way to pro- 
ceed was to make a new and public departure in the interests of 
a broad and thorough evangelization of India. He held that the 
native languages were too much used, and, therefore, that the 
natives should be taught English, and that it should be the fun- 
damental tongue in teaching them. He opened his college in 
July, 1830, and boldly declared his policy — all the classes must 
be taught English, and the Scriptures must be taught daily, an 
hour, in the same tongue. It was a new measure, and shocked 
even missionary sensibilities. The learned Hindus resisted the 
measure. But Duff would not retrace his steps. All who came 
to his college must submit to his regulations. He began with 
five young men, but before the end of the first week he had over 
three hundred applications for admission.* His triumph was 
complete. The English government can never raise a monu- 
ment high enough to Duff's memory, for to him mainly belongs 
the honor of securing the benefits of an English education to 
natives attending government schools. 

Duff's career in India was remarkable. He had the daring of 
a great leader. He made several visits to Scotland and one to 
the United States. His eloquence, zeal, and thorough knowledge 
of pagan conditions in India made him irresistible in his plea 
for increased devotion to the cause of the evangelization of the 
heathen. He was the Peter the Hermit of our century. But 
there was this difference — Duff's crusade belongs to the high 
realm of permanent triumphs. 

Results of Missionary Work. 
The following may be regarded as an approximate result 

* Sherring, "History of Protestant Missions in India," p. 106. 



PROTESTANT MISSIONS IN INDIA. 



437 



of missionary labors in India. The Rev. Dr. B. H. Badley, of 
Lucknow, is the leading authority on the statistics of missionary 
labor, and from, his careful hand we derive our numerical state- 
ment.* There are thirty-six different missionary societies en- 
gaged in work in India. In addition to these there are at least 
ten private agencies. 



No. 



Names of Societies and Missions. 



Began 
work 



India. 



feS 



Native 
Christians. 



Commu- 
nicants. 



Baptist Missionary Society 

London " " 

American Board ^ 

Church Missionary Society 

Gospel Propagation Society 

Wesleyan Missionary Society 

General Baptist Missionary Society 

Church of Scotland Mission 

Free Church of Scotland Mission 

American Presbyterian Mission 

Basel Missionary Society 

American Baptist Missionary Union 

American Free Baptist Mission 

Gossner's Missionary Society 

Leipzig Missionary Society 

Irish Presbyterian Mission 

Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Mission. . . . 
American Evangelic Lutheran Mission.. . 

American Reformed Mission 

Moravian Mission 

American Umited Presbyterian Mission. . 
Methodist Episcopal Church Mission. . . . 
United Presbyterian (Scotland) Mission . 

Danish Lutheran Mission 

Presbyterian Church of England Mission . 

Hermannsburg Lutheran Mission 

Friends' F. M. Association " 

Indian Home Mission 

Canadian Baptist Mission 

German Evangelist Mission (U. S. A.). . . 

Scotch Episcopal Church Mission 

Orig. Secession Church of Scotland Miss'n. 

Canadian Presbyterian Mission 

Swedish Evangelical Mission 

American Free Methodist Mission 

Disciples of Christ Mission 

Private and other Missions 



1793 
1798 
1813 
1814 
1817 
1817 
1822 
1828 
1828 
1834 
1834 
1836 
1836 
1840 
1841 
1841 
1841 
1842 
1853 
1854 
1855 
1856 
1860 
1861 
1862 
1866 
1866 
1867 
1868 
1869 
1870 
1872 
1877 
1877 
1880 
1883 



43 

47 

24 

115 

53 
44 

8 

17 
32 
36 
79 
27 

6 

17 
25 
10 

8 
10 



72 
16 
6 
1 
11 
3 
5 
9 
•4 

1 
5 

8 

1 

3 

26 



50 

44 

37 

132 

71 

9 

9 

3 

10 

12 

10 

55 

4 

11 

12 



4 
4 

3 

36 

1 



10,000 

55,029 

14,475 

101,333 

90,888 

4,200 

3,393 

1,306 

1,598 

1,743 

8,513 

64,500 

1,085 

32,000 

13,589 

1,418 

3,719 

9,360 

5,437 

36 

3,245 

8,604 

960 

481 

34 

800 

36 

4,273 

4,500 

530 

28 

53 

126 

34 



2,421 



Total . 
Increase since 1881. 



791 
133 



530 
69 



449,755 
32,383 



4,000 

6,221 

4,626 

23,289 

21,996 

1,800 

1,259 

396 

1,527 

1,000 

4,445 

28,127 

558 

12,131 

4,130 

302 

852 

3,842 

1,610 

11 

2,176 

5,486 

441 

80 

15 

300 

18 

3,500 

1,870 

234 



1,152 



137,504 
24,179 



Including Burma and Ceylon the present number of foreign 
missionaries is 887 compared with 730 in 1881 ; foreign ordained 
agents, 768, against 674 in 1881. Travancore surpasses all other 



* "Indian Missionary Directory," Lucknow and New York, 



438 INDIRA. 

parts of India in missionary advance : out of a total population 
of 2,311,379 more than one fourth, 577,844, are Christians.* 

Of the 791 foreign missionaries, 42 are sons (or grandsons) 
of missionaries, born in India ; 25 of these are connected with 
American societies. The nationalities of the others are as fol- 
lows : 

England 275 

Scotland 78 

Ireland 17 

Wales 11 

Canada 23—404 

United States 139 

Germany 128 

Switzerland 18 

Sweden 11 

Denmark 9 

Others 40 

Sons 42 

Total 791 

So far as ascertained (for even missionaries sometimes fail to 
answer circulars of inquiry), the American missionaries represent, 
as to nativity, the following states : Ohio, 19 ; New York, 16 ; 
Pennsylvania, 15 ; Massachusetts, 7 ; New Jersey, 7 ; Indiana, 6 ; 
Illinois, 7 ; Connecticut, 5 ; Maine, 4 ; Vermont, 3 ; West Vir- 
ginia, 3 ; Iowa, 2 ; Wisconsin, 2 ; Kentucky, 2 ; New Hampshire, 
2 ; Michigan, 2 ; Tennessee, 1 ; Minnesota, 1 ; Missouri, 1 ; Cali- 
fornia, 1 ; others, 33. 

The years of service of the foreigu missionaries are as follows : 

Under 10 years 393 

From 10 to 20 years 231 

From 20 to 30 " 114 

From 30 to 40 " 42 

From 40 to 45 " 5 

From 45 to 50 " 4 

Over 50 " 2 

Total -791 

The veterans who have given upward of fifty years to India 
are the Rev. Geo. Pearce, of the English Baptists, who arrived 

* Mateer, "Native Life in Travancore," p. 25. 



PROTESTANT MISSIONS IN INDIA. 



439 



in India in October, 1826, and is now living at Ootacamund, in 
South India, and the Kev. John Newton, of the American Pres- 
byterian Mission, who was born in New Jersey in 1810, and 




A K.ULI WOMAN, CALCUTTA. 



arrived at Calcutta in February, 1835. Mr. Newton has spent 
most of the time at Lahor, his present station. Four sons, born 



440 INDIKA. * 

in India and educated in America* (studying theology where 
their father did, at Allegheny, Pa.), have returned to India as 
missionaries. One has passed aAvay to his reward ; the others 
are still in the field. 

Ceylon. 

Number of stations (1881), 716 ; foreign ordained agents, 658 ; 
native ordained agents, 674 ; foreign lay preachers, 79 ; native 
lay preachers, 2988 ; churches or congregations, 4538 ; native 
Christians, 528,590; communicants, 145,097; contributions (ru- 
pees), 228,517 ; teachers, native Christian, 4345 ; teachers, non- 
Christian, 2539 ; theological and training students, 1377 ; Anglo 
vernacular schools, 472 ; Anglo vernacular pupils, 50,203 ; ver- 
nacular schools, 3703 ; pupils, 117,418. 

Woman's work : Foreign and Eurasian female agents, 541 ; 
native Christian female agents, 1944 ; boarding-schools for girls, 
171; boarding pupils, 6983; day schools for girls, 1281; day 
pupils, girls, 49,550. 

Zenanas : Houses, 9566 ; pupils, 9228 ; total pupils, male and 
female (excluding Sunday-schools), 234,759 ; Sunday-school schol- 
ars, 83,321-f 

This is an excellent showing, and represents an amount of 
faith and vigor which no imagination may depict. Between 
Ziegenbalg's arrival in Southern India and the present vast net- 
work of missions now extending over the country, there lies a 
period of less than two centuries of consecrated labor. The tri- 
umph is great, and there is abundant ground for encouragement 
that the time is not far distant when the gospel will reach every 
part of India. 

Dearth of Missionary Labor. 

There is danger, however, that these great achievements be 
overestimated. There are immense stretches of Indian territory 
which have not been reached, or, if reached at all, have been but 
scantily cultivated. We may take some examples in Bengal. 
Up to 1881 the district of Unao, with nine hundred thousand 
people, had never a missionary. The district of Burdwan, a 

* See article in the Independent (New York), Oct. 28, 1886. 
f Cf. " Statistical Tables of Protestant Missions in India, Burma, and Cey- 
lon," for 1881. Calcutta, 1882. 




Baptist Missionary Society 

Basel " " 

Christian Vernacular Education Society v 

Church Missionary Society C 

" of Scotland " 
Danish Lutheran ' 
English Presbyterian Society 
Female Education " 

Free Church of Scotland Society F 

General Baptist Society G 

Gossner's Missionary Society R 

Hermannsburg Missionary Society H 

Indian Normal School Z Society. 
Irish Presbyterian Society 

15- i ' Leipzig Lutheran Society z 

London Missionary Society . . .>. L 

Moravian Missionary Society M 

Scottish Original Secession Society Q 

Society for Propagation of Gospel S 

Friends Missionary Society Y 

Swedish Lutheran Society X 

United Presbyterian Society U 

Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Society — 

"Wesleyan Missionai-y Society W 

Private and Local Societies, etc P 

Indian Home Mission-Santals San 

AMERICAN SOCIETIES. 

Baptist Missionary Union B 

American Board R 

Canadian Baptist Mission C 

" Presbyterian Mission K 

Free Baptist Mission _F 

German Evangelical Mission G 

Lutheran Mission z 

Methodist Episcopal Church M 

Presbyterian Church P 

Reformed Church ( Arcot) A 

United Presbyterian Church u 

Zenana Mission 2 

Disciples of Christ d 



WC ulturajS 
CBaddegam^ 

Point ^ ^aj&e 



PROTESTANT MISSIONS IN INDIA. 441 

hundred miles from Calcutta, on the East India Railway, con- 
tains an area of three thousand five hundred square miles, with 
one and a half millions of people. There is one missionary with 
nine Christian helpers. The Church has twenty-eight communi- 
cants. This district has been occupied by the Church Missionary 
Society since 1816. 

The adjoining district of Bancoora contains about half a mill- 
ion of people. It has one missionary with ten Christian helpers. 
There are ten communicants. This district has been occupied 
by the Wesleyan Missionary Society since 1870. The district of 
Beerbhoom contains half a million of people, and has only three 
missionaries with nine Christian helpers. There are sixty -eight 
communicants. This district has been occupied by the Baptist 
Missionary Society since 1815. 

The district of Moorshedabad contains about a million of 
people, and has only three missionaries with four Christian 
helpers. There are eighteen communicants. This district has 
been occupied by the London Missionary Society since 1824. 
The missionary workers are mainly occupied in Berhampur, 
with its population of twenty-seven thousand. But this district 
contains, besides Berhampur, one city with forty-six thousand 
persons, two towns with more than ten thousand, ten towns 
with over three thousand, fifteen villages with over two thou- 
sand, one hundred and forty-eight villages with over one thou- 
sand, five hundred and forty-seven villages with over five hun- 
dred, one thousand three hundred and seventy-three villages 
with over two hundred, and one thousand six hundred and fifty- 
four villages with less than two hundred inhabitants. This dis- 
trict, with its three thousand seven hundred and fifty-three towns 
and villages, is an occupied district, and has been so since 1824. 

Jessor, containing four thousand two hundred and forty-seven 
towns and villages, has one missionary and five Christian help- 
ers. Rangpur, containing four thousand two hundred and six 
towns and villages, has one missionary and four Christian help- 
ers. Rajeshaye, containing four thousand two hundred and 
twenty-eight towns and villages, has only one missionary and 
seven Christian helpers. 

It would seem that some such results as the following would 
indicate either an insufficient force or a providential indication 
to move out and permit other societies to enter. One district, 



442 INBIKA. 

with one million five hundred thousand people, has been occu- 
pied sixty-nine years, and the result is only thirty-five communi- 
cants. Another, with three missionaries, after seventy years, 
presents to-day but sixty-eight communicants. Another, with a 
million inhabitants, and three missionaries, presents but eighteen 
converts, after sixty-one years of labor. 

Besides these feebly occupied districts, there are others, great 
and populous, without a single preacher. In British India the 
whole land is divided for administrative purposes into divisions 
and districts. A district usually contains from half a million to 
a million and a half inhabitants. In Oudh the districts average 
nine hundred thousand each ; in Rohilcund, a little less. Now, 
taking the several governments, we have the following districts 
in which there are no missions : 

Bengal, 10 ; Northern Provinces, 8 ; Panjab, 9 ; Bombay, 6 ; 
Central Provinces, 4. 

To specify : Malda contains half a million of people, but has 
no missionary; Bagura has half a million, but no missionary; 
Pubna has nearly a million people, living in two thousand seven 
hundred and ninety-two towns and villages, but there is no mis- 
sionary. These three districts, containing two millions of peo- 
ple, are but samples of many vast populous unworked districts 
throughout India. Let this, however, be noted : Here are three 
districts containing two millions of people, within a day's jour- 
ney of Calcutta, in which no Church in all Christendom has a 
single missionary. 

With such a picture, are not the laborers lamentably few ? 

Fokms of Missionary Work. 

It is difficult to enumerate the various forms of missionary 
operations. They are constantly increasing with the expanding 
work itself. The following may be regarded as the principal : 

1. Schools. 

2. Sunday-schools. 

3. Preaching in churches. 

4. Preaching in bazars and melas. 

5. Bible translation and distribution. 

6. The press — books, tracts, periodicals. 

7. Training native Christians, industrial schools, agricultural projects. 

8. Training native ministry, including selection, pay, testing character. 



PROTESTANT MISSIONS IN INDIA. 



443 



9. Woman's work. This is of broad scope, and has many branches of opera- 
tion. 

10. Medical work. 

11. Apologetic instrumentalities: to meet present flank movements of the 

Somajes. 



All Doors Open. 




India is now open to 
missionary work. All the 
Indian gates are down; 
the bars are shattered into 
small fragments ; the locks 
are ground into fine dust. 
Every stream sings a wel- 
come to the evangelist of 
peace. The King of Na- 
tions is entering. 




SHRINE AND TOMBS OF SWAMBHTTNATH. 



"... High as the herald star which fades in floods 
Of silver, warming into pale gold, caught 
By topmost clouds, and flaming on their rims 
To fervent glow, flushed from the brink 
With saffron, scarlet, crimson, amethyst ; 



444 INDIRA. 

Whereat the sky burns splendid to the blue, 
And, robed in raiment of glad light, the King 
Of life and glory cometh !" * 

The missionary often works on blindly, and his environment 
often leads him to disparage his own achievements. The late 
Rev. George Bowen, of Bombay, declared to Dr. Norman Mc- 
Leod that in twenty-five years he had not made one convert to 
Christianity. But little he knew of his own great work. His 
" Guardian" was performing a service which was beyond calcu- 
lation. From his great work, and his own spotless example, 
there will be harvests in the centuries to come. 

One of the most significant signs of the Indian times lies in 
the fact that since the mutiny of 1857 England has learned that 
the Christian religion is the real, and only, basis of a permanent 
tenure of the country. In 1862 Lord Palmerston paid a tribute 
to the loyalty to the British government of the native Chris- 
tians of India, and added : " It is not only our duty, but it is our 
interest to promote the diffusion of Christianity, as far as possi- 
ble, through the whole length and breadth of India." The re- 
port of the Secretary of State and Council of India, 1871-72, 
says : " The government of India cannot but acknowledge the 
great obligations under which it is laid by the benevolent exer- 
tions made by missionaries, whose blameless example and self- 
denying labors are infusing new vigor into the stereotyped life 
of the great populations placed under English rule, and are pre- 
paring them to be in every way better men and better citizens 
of the great empire in which they dwell." There will be no 
lower attitude occupied by the government than is expressed in 
these strong words. 

]STo missionary will ever again be warned off, as Judson was, 
from an Indian port. 

* Edwin Arnold, "The Light of Asia," p. 113 (Lond. ed.). 



CHAPTER XLVIII. 

THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH IN INDIA. 

In 1497 Yasco da Gama, after receiving absolution for himself 
and his crew, set sail from the Tagus, to find a new way to the 
Indies. Columbus had failed to find a western path ; Yasco da 
Gama would see what he could do to find an eastern. Ten 
months afterwards he cast anchor off Calicut, and planted the 
Portuguese flag on Indian soil. Suddenly India presented itself 
as an inviting field for Roman Catholicism. Francis Xavier 
conceived the idea of converting to Christianity the Indian 
world. On May 6, 1542, he stepped ashore at Goa, and began 
those extraordinary labors which have made his name the synonym 
of heroism in all the communions of the Christian world. Even 
on shipboard he began his work of self-sacrifice. " He pillowed 
his head," says Kaye, " upon a coil of ropes, and ate what the 
sailors discarded, but there was not a seaman in that laboring 
vessel, there was not a soldier in that crowded troop-ship, who 
did not inwardly recognize the soul that glowed beneath those 
squalid garments. No outward humiliation could conceal that 
knightly spirit ; no sickness and suffering could quench the fire 
of that ardent genius." * He made Goa his centre of operations, 
but visited various parts of the western and southern coasts of 
the peninsula. His method of work was simple, but very effec- 
tive. His plan, as described by himself, was as follows : " I 
have begun to go through all the villages of this coast, with bell 
in hand, collecting together a large concourse both of boys and 
men. Bringing them twice a day into a convenient place, I 
give them Christian instruction. The boys, in the space of a 
month, have committed all to memory beautifully. Then I told 
them to teach what they had learned to their parents, household, 
and neighbors. On Sundays I called together the men and 

* "Christianity in India," p. 17. 






446 INDIKA. 

women, boys and girls, into a sacred edifice. They came to- 
gether with great alacrity, and with an ardent desire to hear. 
Then I began with the Confession of the Holy Trinity, the 
Lord's Prayer, the Angelic Salutation, the Apostles' Creed, pro- 
nouncing them in their own language with a clear voice. All 
followed me in the repetition, in which they take an uncommon 
pleasure. Then I went through the Creed alone, pausing upon 
each article, asking whether they believed without any doubt. 
All in an equally confident tone, with their hand in the form of 
a cross on their breasts, affirmed that they truly believed it." 

Xavier carried the Gospel, as he believed it, to the wildest 
tribes. Bercastel says, that by the year 1551 the number of 
converts along the fishing coast amounted to five hundred thou- 
sand.* ' In 1560 the Inquisition was established in Goa, and all 
the detailed arrangements for enforcing obedience to the decrees 
of the Church which were employed in Spain and Italy, such as 
inquisitors, qualificators, familiars, and jailers, were repeated on 
the far-off shore of India. 

For three centuries and a half the Roman Catholic Church 
has been at work in India. A schism occurred, called the " Goa 
Schism," which long interfered with all positive advance. But 
that is now removed, and the Roman Catholic Church may be 
regarded as a unit in its system of work. The whole of British 
India is divided into vicariates apostolic, each vicariate being 
under a vicar apostolic, who is also a bishop in "countries of 
the unbelieving." For example, the vicar apostolic of Madras 
is bishop of Thermopylae. Catechists are placed over large con- 
gregations which have no priest, who read prayers in the morn- 
ing and evening, and conduct Sabbath services. When the cate- 
chist is ill, the people choose one of their own number to read. 

Great attention is given to girls' schools. These are estab- 
lished throughout the country, and the education is conducted 
in a thorough manner. These schools have been so successful 
as to make important inroads on European and Eurasian fami- 
lies. Orphanages are established in many places, and agents go 
through the country for the purpose of securing places for those 
who are without any help. Higher education is cultivated. 
There are two very fine colleges in Calcutta and Bombay. The 



* " Lettres Eclifiantes et Curieuses," ix. 308. 



SECTAEIAL MARKS. 



V 



A 



V 



S 1.0 

o 



UJ 



V 



w 



y 



/5 



u 



/6 



u' : 



ur 



y 



® o 



jlfik 



A 










a 



s 



3E 



F=Fq 



i/ 



^e 



HK 



hh 



t- tfi 




7"<Z 



Nos. 1 to 5, Brahma, and the Trimurti. Nos. 6 to 35, Sectarial Marks of the Vaishnavas. 

Nos. 36 to 69, Sectarial Marks of the Saivas. No. 70, Mark of the Sakti sects. 

Nos. 71 to 74, marks of the Buddhists and Jainus. 



THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH IN INDIA. 449 

present college in Bombay has a corps of sixteen European pro- 
fessors. These institutions open their doors alike to students of 
all confessions, and to Europeans and natives. 

All the principal orders and offices of the Roman Catholic 
Church in Europe are represented in India. In addition to the 
vicars apostolic, the Roman Catholics of India have their arch- 
bishops, bishops, and a large priesthood of various nationalities 
— English, Irish, French, German, Belgian, Dutch, Swiss, Italian, 
and Portuguese.* They have cathedrals, churches, convents, 
chapels, and monasteries. The present numerical strength in 
India is about as follows : 

Priests 835 

Children in schools 45,171 

Roman Catholic population 955,180 

For Ceylon : 

Priests 84 

Children in schools 13,996 

Roman Catholic population . 203,609 

The method of Roman Catholic work is modelled after 
Xavier's example, with such changes as experience has taught 
to be necessary. The missionary travels from place to place, 
and administers the Holy Sacrament to the people. He is re- 
ceived by the people with great demonstrations of joy, such as 
native music and banners, and is accompanied to the church. 
He then announces the length of his stay, and exhorts the people 
to profit by his presence, and approach the sacraments worthily. 
In the village visitation he gathers the people at 3 p.m., reads a 
Preparation for Confession, and leads in fervent prayer. Public 
doctrinal instruction is given, and realistic pictures of future re- 
wards and punishments are held up before the people. The 
crucifix is held aloft, and the meaning is explained. The Act of 
Contrition is read, and vernacular prayers are offered. Confes- 
sion begins, and continues until midnight. At sunrise the next 
morning the bell rings for Mass. After Mass comes Exhortation. 
In the afternoon the missionary receives visits from people who 
wish to become Christians. During the week or ten days of the 

* Temple, " India in 1880," p. 167. 
29 



450 INDIKA. 

village visitation he baptizes, organizes, settles difficulties, and 
then leaves for another village, to repeat his work.* 

The Koman Catholics in India differ essentially from the 
Protestant missionaries in their method of work. The Roman- 
ist enters into no argument against European infidelity, pub- 
lishes but little except a few devotional books, does not attack 
with violence the pagan systems, does not visit the melas, or re- 
ligious fairs, and speak to the people in miscellaneous throngs. 
His method is calm, conservative. He gathers the children, 
groups them into orphanages, never loses sight of his doctrinal 
system, and has a keen eye always on the increase of his flock. 
He looks after the poor, and teaches resignation. He never 
distributes a tract. 'Whenever he engages in controversy, he 
levels his pen against Protestantism. Having no family, the 
priest requires but little for his support, and does not have to 
return to Europe or America on account of the health of an- 
other. On the other hand, except in case of nuns, the Roman 
Catholic missionary loses all advantage of female workers and 
the example and influence of the Christian family.f 

Have Roman Catholic missions been an advantage to India? 
On this point the Protestant missionaries are divided. We be- 
lieve that any agency which prepares the pagan mind for cast- 
ing off its idolatry is helpful towards the full truth. The great- 
est harvests of Protestants, so far, have been in South India, 
where the mission was begun by Xavier among the Tamils. No 
force which breaks the bond to polytheism is to be despised. 
The least spark of truth, on any shore, is better than none at all. 

* Louis St. Cyr, " Catholic Missions iu South India," pp. 78-80. 
f "Missionary Conference of South India and Ceylon," vol, ii. p. 339. Cal- 
cutta, 1879. 



CHAPTER XLIX. 

AN INDO-AMERICAN ROMANCE. 

One of the most romantic chapters in modern missions is the 
early connection between the missions of India and the Chris- 
tians of New England. In Cotton Mather's curious little book, 
" India Christiana," published in Boston in 1721, there is as in- 
teresting a specimen of fraternal correspondence as can be found 
in the whole history of the Church. Ziegenbalg, the first mis- 
sionary from Europe to India, had heard of Cotton Mather, who 
was at the time the leading representative of the Puritans of 
New England. Probably he arrived at his knowledge of him 
while a student in the Halle Orphan House. For Francke and 
Mather were at this time engaged in a correspondence, and it is 
not unlikely that Francke, with his warm evangelistic nature, 
spoke to his students about Mather's multifarious labors and 
marvellous authorship in Boston. 

Afterwards, when Ziegenbalg was at work in India, he saw 
the need of learning from any quarter the best means of con- 
verting the heathen. He thought of Cotton Mather. He ac- 
cordingly addressed a letter to him, in " Boston, "West Indies," 
asking for advice and information as to his methods in dealing 
with the Indians of the West. 

To this letter Cotton Mather replied in a lengthy epistle. He 
dated his letter Boston, New England, December 31, 1717. He 
concluded as follows : " My design was to Write a Letter, and 
not a Volume ; 'tis enough to point at these things, without am- 
plifications upon them. Reverend Sir, you plainly see, Whati 
we are ; Joyned in our Minds, tho' parted by the Waters ; one 
Soyle, though not one Soyle uniting of us. What remains is, 
that by Mutual Prayers to our most Merciful GOD and FA- 
THER, we be helpful to. one another. Live and prosper ; always 
what you are and what you would be ; Always Living to your 
Saviour; and not only very dear unto me, but also unto the 



452 INDIRA. 

whole Christian World, yea unto the Angels of GOD, unto 
whom you are a Spectacle." * 

But Mather was not satisfied with sending words alone to his 
brother in the far-off East Indies. He also collected gold, from 
some young men (no doubt students of Harvard College), and 
books as well, and sent them with the letter. Both the letter 
and the money reached India, but were about fourteen months 
on the way. By this time Ziegenbalg had died, and it devolved 
upon his successor, Grundler, to answer the letter. He gave 
Mather a full account of the methods of work among the na- 
tives. I condense it as follows : We declare only one true God, 
who manifested himself in three persons. We consider man in 
his fourfold state : first, in his original blessedness ; second, in 
his lost condition ; third, in his penitent condition and a state of 
grace ; and fourth, his state of eternal blessedness. We teach 
in both the Tamil and Portuguese languages. Catechists are 
employed, seven of whom are already in use. In their Biblical 
exercises they take a whole book of the New Testament, analyz- 
ing it and giving its thorough spirit and purpose. The exegeti- 
cal exercise is an examination of the inward meaning of the 
special passage as brought out by the rules of interpretation. 
The theological exercise bears on the fundamental articles of 
faith. The catechists are instructed in all these, so that they 
may be able to teach the natives. The schools are free of all 
expense, and already eighty children are daily fed and taught. 
Both books and clothing are also provided them. The press is 
employed in printing the Old Testament in the Tamil tongue. 
We missionaries have our own paper-mill. It is said that there 
are two thousand Popish priests who go through the country 
endeavoring to win the natives to the Roman Catholic Church.f 
These, no doubt, were the successors of the missionaries first in- 
troduced by Xavier. 

This letter was accompanied with some books, a translation 
of the New Testament into the Tamil language, and some small 
works, being the first-fruits of the mission press in India. 

We, therefore, have three important facts showing the early 
relation between American Christianity and the mission field in 



* "India Christiana, 1 ' p. 74. 
t Ibid., pp. 79 ff. 



AN INDO-AMERICAN ROMANCE. 



453 



India : That there is every reason for believing that some of the 
first gifts from Anglo-Saxon Christians for the evangelization of 
India were from America ; that one of the first full accounts of 
the methods of work in Indian evangelization sent to the Eng- 




COTTON MATHER. 



lish-speaking w T orld was to New England ; and that some of the 
first copies of books which came from the mission press in India 
and fell into Anglo-Saxon hands were sent to New England and 
were received by Cotton Mather. 



CHAPTER L. 

COUNTESS DUFFERIN FUND FOR FEMALE MEDICAL AID. 

The new movement in behalf of medical aid for the women 
of India is one of the most important humane efforts of the 
present century. In far-reaching results it promises to be the 
greatest of all charities ever inaugurated in India, and one of 
the greatest in any land or age. Its origin has all the elements 
of a touching romance. In Punna, a city about a hundred miles 
from Lucknow, there lives a native prince — the Maharajah. In 
1881 his wife, the Maharani, was suffering from a serious and 
lingering disease. Her case was desperate. It is contrary to 
all tradition and propriety that a male physician should enter a 
zenana, or lady's chamber, and make such diagnosis as might 
secure intelligent treatment. Besides, no European physician, 
or, indeed, any other European, lived in Punna. The prince 
had heard of Miss Beilby, a missionary physician living in 
Lucknow, and he sent for her to attend his suffering wife. 
Miss Beilby not only responded to his imploring appeal, but 
remained with her patient for several weeks. The Eani was 
restored to health through the missionary's skill and care. Miss 
Beilby was soon to return to England, to take her degree 
in a medical college. On the morning of her departure from 
Punna, she called at the palace to say good-by to her princely 
patient. The Rani was deeply affected. She had a great bur- 
den on her heart, and, dismissing all her ladies and attendants, 
said : 

" You are going to England, and I want you to tell the Queen, 
and Prince and Princess of Wales, and the men and women of 
England, what the women of India suffer when they are sick. 
Will you promise me ?" 

The Rani was emphatic in confining her wishes to one thing 
— medical help for the suffering women of her dear India. But 
she was not willing that Miss Beilby should intrust the message 



COUNTESS DTJFFERIN FUND FOB FEMALE MEDICAL AID. 455 

to any one else ; she must deliver it herself to the good Queen 
of England. Miss Beilby explained the great difficulty of seeing 
the Queen in person, and could give the Rani little encourage- 
ment that this could be brought to pass. 

" But," said the Rani, " did you not tell me that our Queen 





PS' ':^|"3*tS 







was good and gracious ; that she never heard of sorrow without 
sending a message to say how sorry she was, and trying to help ?" 
The good missionary lady was willing to make the effort, but 
with slight hope of success in securing an audience with the 
Queen. When the Rani observed her readiness to do what she 
could, she asked Miss Beilbv to write down the message at once. 



456 



INDIRA. 




~9^ 

SEfC iiM, 









"Write it small, Doctor Miss Sahiba, for I want to put it 
into a locket, and you are to wear this locket around your neck 
until you see our great Empress, and give it to her yourself. 
You are not to send it through another." 

• The locket and its precious message from the suffering heart 
of the Eani of Punna to the Queen of England were in safe 
hands. What will not a woman's heroism accomplish ? In due 
time the knowledge of Miss Beilby's medical work in India, and 
of the Hani's message to the Queen, reached some of the ladies of 
her court. They communicated their information to the Queen, 
and she soon caused a message to be sent to Miss Beilby to visit 
her, and communicate in person whatever message she had to con- 
vey. The Queen 
jpjBr " ■ . ---™ : ^ listened atten- 

tively to all Miss 
Beilbyhadtosay. 
The missionary 
handed the locket 
to the Queen. It 
was opened, and 
the little letter 
taken out and 
read. The Queen 
was profoundly 
impressed, and, 
turning to her 
ladies, said : 

" We had no 
idea it was as bad 
as this. Something must be done for these poor creatures." She 
then gave Miss Beilby a message for the Eani, in reply to hers, 
and then added these words for all persons to whom Miss Beilby 
might speak on the sufferings of the women of India : 

"We should wish it generally known that we sympathize with ev- 
ery effort made to relieve the suffering state of the women of India." 
But the matter did not rest here. The Queen was not satis- 
fied with the expression of a mere wish. Under the existing 
Gladstone ministry Lord Dufferin was appointed Governor-Gen- 
eral for India. The Queen took pains to see Lady Dufferin be- 
fore sailing, and impress upon her the importance of making 




THE WALTER HOSPITAL, BUILT BY H. H. THE MAHARAJAH 
OP UDAIPUR, RAJPUTANA- 



COUNTESS DUFFERIN FUND FOB FEMALE MEDICAL AID. 457 

some effort for bringing medical help to the women of India. 
Lady Dufferin gives the following simple statement of her part- 
ing visit to the Queen, and of the effect upon her own mind : 
" When I was leaving England, Her Majesty the Queen-Empress 
drew my attention to the subject, and said that she thought that 
it was one in which I might take a practical interest. From that 
time I took pains to learn all that I could of the medical ques- 
tion in India as regards women, and I found that although cer- 
tain great efforts were being made in a few places to provide 
female attendance, hospitals, training-schools, and dispensaries 
for women ; and although missionary effort had done much, and 
had indeed for years been sending out pioneers into the field, 
yet, taking India as a whole, its women were undoubtedly with- 
out that medical aid which their European sisters are accus- 
tomed to consider as absolutely necessary." * 

I little thought, when I saw the magnificent reception given 
to Lord and Lady Dufferin on their entrance into Calcutta, and 
the military splendor surrounding them as they rode in state 
through the principal thoroughfares, amid the demonstrations 
of the vast multitude, what a burden was resting on Lady Duf- 
ferin's heart. The sorrows of the women of the country seem 
to have been constantly in her mind. Here is her own language 
concerning her feelings during the early part of her residence in 
the palace in Calcutta : " It seemed to me, then, that if only the 
people of India could be made to realize that their women have 
to bear more than their necessary share of human suffering, and 
that it rests with the men of this country and with the women 
of other nationalities to relieve them of that unnecessary burden, 
then surely the men would put their shoulders to the wheel, and 
would determine that the wives and mothers and sisters and 
daughters dependent upon them should in times of sickness and 
pain have every relief that human skill and tender nursing could 
afford them ; and we, women of other nationalities, who are not 
debarred by custom or religion from employing doctors, and who 
have, in addition to medical aid, every variety of scene and oc- 

* Article by Lady Dufferin in the Asiatic Quarterly, Calcutta, April, 1886. 
For my information concerning the details of the interview between the Ma- 
harani of Punna and Miss Beilby, and other incidents connected with the mes- 
sage to the Queen, I am indebted to a most interesting article by Mrs. B. H. 
Badley, in the Calcutta Review. 



458 



INDIKA. 



cupation to turn our minds from our Own sufferings, we surely 
too should feel a deep sympathy with our less fortunate sisters, 
and should each one of us endeavor to aid in the work of miti- 
gating their sufferings. 

" I thought that if an association could be formed which 
should set before itself this one single object, to bring medical 
knowledge and medical relief to the women of India, and which 
should carefully avoid compromising the simplicity of its aim by 
keeping clear of all controversial subjects, and by working in a 
strictly unsectarian spirit, then it might become national, and it 
ought to command the support and sympathy of every one in 
the country who has women dependent upon him." 

The idea of forming a national association for supplying med- 
ical aid to the 
: " _ women of India 

wasthefirst prac- 
tical effect of the 
Queen's wish. 
To Lady Duffe- 
rin belongs the 
honor of being 
the first to en- 
tertain it, and 
then of adopting 
prompt and wise 
measures for put- 
ting it into exe- 
cution. She ac- 
cordingly wrote 
to a number of 
the more prominent ladies of India, such as Mrs. Grant Duff, 
Lady Eeay, Lady Aitchison, and Lady Lyall, and from them 
she received most encouraging support. She then drew up 
a prospectus, stating the need and her plan for its relief, 
which was translated into various languages and distributed 
throughout India. The society was formed bearing the name 
of the National Association for Supplying Female Medical Aid 
to the Women of India, and money collected was credited to 
the " Countess of Dufferin's Fund." The appeal was favorably 
received. The press throughout the country was unanimous in 




■111 II 

■ l iJi : ::if:!|.i; l Wi» l 'F;.M;.t:.'.;;: 1 ";: «■ ....luiii ,;i,i 



■KPP^ 






- -iw.i,;;»i , «i : 'if 1 fi'*; ! ;' 



HOSPITAL AND DISPENSARY BUILT BY H. H. THE MAHA- 
RAJAH OP DARBHUNGA. 



COUNTESS DUFFERIN FUND FOR FEMALE MEDICAL AID. 459 

approval, while the response from municipalities was equal- 
ly encouraging. Certain objections, however, reached Lady 
Dufferin's ears. Here are her own words concerning some 
of them, with her half-satirical and pungent way of meeting 
them : 

" The idea was indeed so kindly received that very few objec- 
tions or unfavorable criticisms were made upon it. It may, how- 
ever, be well to say something with regard to those that have 
come before me. A few persons maintain that the women of 
this country do see medical men professionally. In reply to this, 
I think I may safely say that they never do except in the last 
extremity, and that the doctor so admitted to a zenana enters 
with his head in a bag, or remains outside the purdah, feeling his 
patient's pulse, but unable to make any of the necessary examina- 
tions. Others simply state that the women do not want doctors 
at all, and that therefore any scheme for giving them med- 
ical relief is unnecessary and quixotic. To refute an argument 
properly, one should understand it, and I confess I do not 
understand this one. It seems to me simply to point to the 
total abolition of doctors, and to the extinction of medical sci- 
ence altogether. If women do not want doctors, then men can 
do without them. If the strong man, who has only ill-health, 
diseases, or accidents to fear, needs their services, surely the 
weak woman, who adds to all these liabilities the pains and 
troubles of childbirth, needs them too. 

" I do not think, however, that, as a rule, men deny themselves 
medical advice ; and I have even heard it whispered occasionally 
that a man thinks a good deal of his own little aches and pains, 
and can be somewhat nervous over an unaccustomed twinge. 
This may be a libel ; but it is true that in India, as elsewhere, 
men have all that they require in the way of medical advice, 
while the women here have not, and the object of this scheme is 
to remedy an accidental injustice." 

Such words as these present not only a full justification for 
the proposed object of the Association, but for the medical work 
which is now an important arm of missionary service on the 
part of all the societies. Besides, it must not be forgotten that 
for the very idea which resulted in the founding of the Associa- 
tion the whole Church is indebted to a lady serving under one 
of the English missionary societies. 



460 



INDIKA. 



The Association has now been at work about four years. Its 
objects are grouped into three great departments. 

1. Medical Tuition. This includes the teaching- and training 
in India of women as nurses, hospital assistants, and regular 
physicians for every department of medical practice. Lady 
Dufferin says that for the present the services of English and 
American ladies must be chiefly relied on, but that India must 
look to itself for a large, and even wholesale, supply of female 
doctors for the future. 

2. Medical Relief. This includes (a) the establishment, under 
female superintendence, of dispensaries and cottage hospitals 

for the treat- 
ment of women 
and children; 
( h ) the open- 
ing of female 
wards under fe- 
male superin- 
tendence in ex- 
isting hospitals 
and dispensa- 
ries; (c) the pro- 
vision of female 
medical officers 
and attendants 
for existing fe- 
male wards; (d) 
and the found- 
ing of hospitals for women where special funds or endowments 
are forthcoming. 

3. The supply of trained female nurses and midwives, for 
women and children in hospitals and private houses. This re- 
lates to women who have passed the stage of tuition, and who, 
whether native, European, or Eurasian, are qualified to under- 
take the duties of their profession ; the Association will endeavor 
to place these in the ordinary manner, and there is nothing 
special to be noted on this point. 

The National Association has received some criticism from 
some of the missionaries, who suppose that there is a measure 
of antagonism to their already flourishing medical work for 




THE DUFFERIN HOSPITAL, NAGPTTR, BUILT BY THE CENTRAL 
PROVINCE BRANCH. 



COUNTESS DUFFERIN FUND FOB FEMALE MEDICAL AID. 461 

women in India. Lady Dufferin has met with this objection, 
and gives reasons why the Association does not interfere with 
their work. She welcomes missionary societies to affiliation 
with the Association, and holds that in a country of such great 
needs there is work enough for all. The exact relation of the 
Association to the missionaries is as follows : 

" The National Association cannot employ missionaries, nor 
can it provide hospital accommodation in which it is intended 
to combine medical treatment with religious teaching. It may, 
in certain cases, be glad to avail itself of medical missions as 
training agencies, and may occasionally attach an assistant to a 
mission dispensary in order to give that assistant the benefit of 
further training on leaving college under a female doctor's super- 
vision ; but in such cases it would have to be clearly understood 
that the assistant's duty would be strictly confined to medical 
work. No officers in the employ of the National Association 
can be allowed to exercise a missionary calling. 

" The National Association does not undertake to provide funds 
for the travelling expenses or establishment of medical mission- 
aries. While it is compelled to stand aloof from the medical 
missions, yet it has a philanthropic work in common, and has no 
wish to be considered antagonistic to them. The policy of the 
National Association with regard to them is one of non-interven- 
tion, and they should be left undisturbed in places where they 
are already established, except in the -case of very large towns, 
where there is room for a second medical establishment, or when 
the municipality or the inhabitants of the district supply the 
funds necessary for obtaining the services of another female doc- 
tor ; then it would be our duty to aid such a locality in procuring 
the desired medical assistance." 

I do not doubt that such adjustments will be made, when the 
Association shall be fairly at work, as will be satisfactory to all 
the missionary societies. Indeed, it would be strange if the con- 
tributions for medical effort by the societies were not greatly 
increased, in time, by such development of sentiment as must 
result from the work of the National Association, and such em- 
phasis be placed upon the need of medical help for the women 
of India as can be seen in the organization of a National Asso- 
ciation with the avowed object of relief. 

The National Association has already published three reports 



462 INBIKA. 

— for 1886, 1887, 1888. These have been supplemented by an 
excellent little volume by Lady Dufferin herself.* Branches 
are organized in Bengal, Madras, the Central Provinces, the 
Panjab, and the Northwest Provinces. Local committees are 
constituted all over the country ; and not only Englishmen, 
occupying prominent positions as officers and civil servants, but 
leading Eurasians and native rulers and scholars have espoused 
the cause with great enthusiasm. Lady Dufferin's appeal for a 
collection in honor of the Queen's Jubilee, to be appropriated 
to the medical care of the Indian women, met with a magnif- 
icent response. These sums are likely to increase every year, and 
the whole country to be covered with a network of affiliated as- 
sociations. In some sections the enterprise is taking the shape 
of permanent endowment, so that to continue and develop the 
institutions will not depend at all on annual subscriptions, but on 
a certain and fixed revenue. In Rajputana, for example, two 
princes gave $190,000, which completed the endowment of the 
permanent fund of that country for the medical care of women. 
Down to the present time the total amount received by the Cen- 
tral Fund is about seven lakhs, or $280,000. 

In evidence of the kindly feeling of Lady Dufferin towards 
the women who serve the different missionary societies as med- 
ical missionaries, I may add that in her last report she pub- 
lishes a directory of the female doctors practising in India. 
From this list it appears that there is a total of sixty-five, and 
that of this number nineteen are from the United States. 

* " Record of Three Years' Work of the National Association " (London, 
1889), p. 22. 



CHAPTEE LI. 

THE CRADLE OF MISSIONS IN NORTH INDIA. 

Little Serampore is fragrant with missionary memories. Zie- 
genbalg, Schwarz, Schulz, and others had represented the Danish 
and German missionary societies in the south. Then, wherever 
the English soldiers had gone, there were chapels of the Church 
of England, where services were held, but rather to keep up the 
old ecclesiastical associations than from any determined and ag- 
gressive spirit to make India a Christian land. But Serampore 




'y^ 



.-*^0" vr 



5fP« 



BAPTISM AT NATIVE CHAPEL, SEKAMPORE, THE FIRST NATIVE CHURCH IN 

NORTH INDIA. 



has a profounder spiritual significance, and its memories reach 
deeper than any other spot in that wonderful land. It repre- 
sents the first English purpose to bring to pass, in the realm 
of Christian life, what Clive and Hastings achieved by military 
and civil triumphs. 

The day when William Carey walked up the bank of the 
Hugli, and fixed the site for a home in Serampore, was as im- 



464 INDIRA. 

portant for India as Olive's victory at Plassey. It meant the 
determination of Anglo-Saxon Christians to plant the cross in 
every part of India. Without the band at whose head Carey 
stood, and without the Christian life which they were the means 
of introducing, it is safe to say that all the fruits of Plassey 
would have been lost, and that the jewel of India now in Vic- 
toria's crown would never have found its way there. England, 
with all her debt to her brave soldiers in that land, owes a still 
greater one to her missionaries, to whom she has never given 
either peerage or estate. 

Carey had nothing but discouragement when he wished, while 
yet in England, to link his fortunes with the evangelization of 
India. But the young shoemaker would not " sit down." He 
turned his face towards the burning sun. He was not permitted 
to work in Calcutta. Those were the days when the East India 
Company was paying millions to sustain the corrupt worship of 
false faiths, and there must be no interference with traditions. 
But the man had still the habit of not knowing how to "sit 
down." He conceived the happy thought of a movement in the 
rear of the hostile camp. If he was ordered out of Calcutta, 
there was this little town of Serampore, just fourteen miles back 
of the metropolis, over which the East India Company had no 
control. In the earlier part of the seventeenth century a little 
trading company from Denmark had bought the place, and still 
owned it. The Danish flag floated over it. Here Carey was safe. 
Here, too, came Marshman and Ward. If one will measure 
• achievements by their results, and by their power to project 
themselves into the distant future, the triumphs of three mission- 
aries throw into total eclipse the proudest deeds of any Roman' 
triumvirate. 

What is Serampore to-day? The answer is easy. In 1845 
the English government bought the place of the Danish king- 
dom, and the Queen's flag has floated over it ever since. But 
before that date it had already done its work. Carey, Marsh- 
man, and Ward had established their college, had set up their 
printing-presses, had honeycombed the false faiths by their, fear- 
less exposure of their immoral monstrosities ; had sent mission- 
aries up the entire valley of the Ganges, and had scattered far 
and wide the Bible and Christian literature in the popular ver- 
naculars. Before the great Carey's tired feet were permitted 



THE CRADLE OF MISSIONS IN NORTH INDIA. 



465 



to walk the " starry plain," he had the joy of knowing that the 
gospel was preached in forty Indian languages and dialects. 
When Calcutta opened its gates for the missionary from every 
land, there was no further need of Serampore. It had fought 
its fight, and won a footing in the metropolis. The Serampore 
of to-day, therefore, is only a memory and an inspiration. 




BILK-FLOSS EMBROIDERY OK CLOTH. 



30 



CHAPTER LII. 

A WALK THROUGH OLD SERAMPORE. 

Everything in Serampore recalls the past. I had no little 
difficulty in getting into the college building where had wrought 
side by side, for many long years, the three great missionaries — 
Carey, the poor cobbler ; Marshman, the weaver's son ; and Ward, 
the carpenter. There are but few students now. A little pa- 
tience, and the sending to a distant part of the town, brought 
the keys ; and I had ample time to inspect the building and its 
literary treasures. The college stands on the bank of the river, 
and from its upper windows I had a broad and beautiful view of 
the Governor-General's home at Barrackpore, on the opposite 
bank, and of the park beyond it, and of the country many miles 
up and down the Hugli. The roof of the piazza of the college 
building is supported by six pillars, of sixty feet in height. The 
imposing staircase is of iron, and was brought from England, 
probably as a gift. The main lecture-room is on the first floor. 
Above this is the large hall, which is over one hundred feet long 
and nearly seventy feet broad. The library is still undisturbed. 
The men who wrought here seem to have had upon them the spell 
of destiny. Each pen-stroke of Carey, Marshman, and Ward was 
a thunderbolt against the pagan wall of Hinduism. They had 
the power of prevision. For example, they dared to issue in- 
March 31, 1818, a little newspaper in an Indian language, the 
Sumachar Durpun. That was the beginning of the large native 
journalistic productions which we see to-day. 

Little souvenirs of Carey and his two associates lie here and 
there, as if the three immortals had only just stepped away from 
their desks to furnish new matter to the printer, or to say good- 
by to a young missionary departing for Delhi, or across the Bay 
of Bengal to Burma. Old and faded portraits still hang about 
the walls. Here are representations in oil of each member of 
the immortal missionary trio; Zoffany's portrait of Madame 



A WALK THROUGH OLD SERAMPORE. 



467 



Grand ; and faded pictures of Frederick VI. and his wife, of 
Denmark. 

Carey applied himself with great industry to the flora of In- 
dia, and here are his botanical collections, a priceless treasure to 
the science of all time. The shelves abound in valuable books. 
Works in English constitute the least valuable part of the collec- 
tion. The missionaries early learned that, to pull down paganism, 
they must first know what it is. Hence they collected rare Hindu 
and Pali manuscripts, on crude paper and on palm leaves, or in any 
shape in which they could find them. They brought them here, 
deciphered them, and then told the world the secret of their ab- 
surdities. The books now in this library which have grown out 
of the old and now dying faiths of India would be beyond price 




THE COLLEGE AT SERAMPORE. 



in the British Museum, or any other collection in the world. As 
bibliographical curiosities alone they are worthy of the closest 
study, for they illustrate exactly the old Indian methods of per- 
petuating letters. Sanskrit manuscripts are in rich abundance. 
Even Tibet has been made to yield some of its stores, for one 
finds on these shelves some fine manuscripts in the language of 
that country. Nor did these laborious and keen-eyed men for- 
get the days of the great Mogul rulers, for here is the identical 
account of the apostles which the Jesuits presented to the Em- 
peror Akbar. Those were the days in which to find literary 
gems. When these men first began to gather in India, it was 
easy to find rare treasures. The collectors have since scoured 
the country, and the glass cases in the great European libraries 



468 INDIRA. 

now contain what could be readily found and cheaply bought 
a century ago. 

The old Danish church is at some distance from the college. 
It is small, and seats only about one hundred people, but abounds 
in memorials of the old times, when Christian missions were in 
their infancy in India. There are tablets in masonry of the 
three great missionaries. Lord Wellington, when only Arthur 
Wellesley, was a contributor to the building — probably the res- 
toration of an older one on the same spot. But the missionaries 
are not buried here. The little cemetery where they lie is in anoth- 
er part of the town. Here is Carey's epitaph, written by himself : 

WILLIAM CAREY, 
Born 17th of August, 1761, 
Died 9th of June, 1834. 

A wretched, poor, and helpless worm, 
On Thy kind hands I fall. 

As a picture of unselfish labor on the part of three men, I 
know of no parallel to their mutual understanding. Here is a 
part of their stipulation: "Let us give ourselves up unreservedly 
to this glorious cause. Let us never think that our time, our 
gifts, our strength, our families, or even the clothes we wear, are 
our own. Let us sanctify them all to God and his cause. . . . 
If we give up the resolution which was formed on the subject of 
private trade when we first united at Serampore, the mission is 
from that hour a lost cause." 

These men were in demand for outside labors, and drew large 
salaries. For thirty years Carey was professor in the Fort 
William College, down in Calcutta, and received a salary of five 
hundred dollars a month for his duties there, and as Bengali 
translator to the government. But all his dollars went into the 
common purse for evangelizing the Hindus. The three men 
and their families ate at a common table, and drew from the 
common fund only the pittance of twelve rupees, or four dollars 
and eighty cents, per month, each, for his support. Everything 
went towards the support of the out-stations, casting types, and 
the translating and printing of the Scriptures. The expense to 
the Serampore mission for the Chinese version alone was over 
one hundred thousand dollars.* 



* Malcom, " Travels in Hindustan and China " (London ed. 1844), p. 62. 



A WALK THROUGH OLD SERAMPORE. 



469 



I have before me two Reports of these missionaries. Each is 
a " first " one, and now a rare pamphlet in any missionary col- 
lection. One Report is of the Institution for the Encouragement 
of Native Schools in India. It was issued in 1818. It shows 
that there were already one hundred and three schools under the 
care of this central one, and that six thousand seven hundred and 
three children had been taught. The other Report is that of the 
college, dated 1819, and issued by the Serampore press. It gives 
an account of the methods of instruction, the subjects taught, 
and the broad field whence the students came. There was a full 




4SKkJ 






THE TOMB OF DR. CARET. 



corps of professors, and thirty-seven students were in attend- 
ance. Endowment there was none. Miiller, of Bristol, never 
raised his flag of trust higher than this : " On the subject of 
funds for the college, the committee frankly confess that, be- 
yond a humble trust in the divine goodness, and a reliance on the 
generosity of the public, they have no dependence whatever." * 

The omissions in these reports are more remarkable than any 
statements which they contain. Here was a grand opportunity 
to say something about the enormous ignorance of the people, 



First Keport of the College, p. 13. 



470 INDIKA. 

of the absurd cosmogony to be corrected, and especially of the 
gross superstition and inhumanity of the ruling native faiths. 
But not a word is uttered. Every sentence is as calm, though 
not as cold, as the icy cone of Mount Everest. No prejudice is 
awakened. But the one golden thread which pervades all is, 
India needs, and must have, and is sure to have, the saving Word 
of Life. 

The many years during which these men labored together, and 
the beautiful brotherhood of intense Christian work, must have 
presented a rare picture of the division of cheerful labor. They 
grew tired — as did Wesley of keeping his accounts — of drawing 
a few rupees a month for their support, and in 1817 each drew 
only what he needed. Neither laid up any property for himself. 
Carey died penniless. Marshman was the last to fall, and Mal- 
com relates that when he visited him, in 1836, he was sixty-nine 
years old, but still a hard worker : " His eye is not dim, nor his 
step slow. He leads the singing at family worship with a clear 
and full voice ; preaches with energy ; walks rapidly several 
miles every morning, and devotes as many hours every day to 
study as at any former period." * 

A week after my. visit to Serampore I enjoyed the hospitality 
of the home of Dr. Lazarus, of Benares. Mrs. Lazarus is a rela- 
tive of the Marshmans, had spent much of her early life in Ser- 
ampore, and gaVe me some facts which came under her own 
observation, in illustration of the life which the three brothers 
led. Carey never would lose a moment. He carried his work 
with him, no matter where he went. Every day he needed two 
hours to ride down to his lectures and translating in Calcutta. 
But he had fixtures so placed in his wagon that he could con- 
sult his books and write almost as conveniently as at home. He 
thus utilized these four hours a day. 

Carey had his times. Whatever the weather, on the first 
day of every March he appeared in his full suit of white cotton. 
When the first of November came, he was just as certain to 
appear at breakfast .in his black dress. These colors he never 
changed until the date came round again. Three cups of tea, 
three pieces of toast, and two eggs were his unvarying break- 
fast. One of his daughters, Dolly, married a Mr. Baker, and 

* "Travels in Hindustan and China," p. 63. 



A WALK THROUGH OLD SERAMPOBE. 



471 



Carey and his wife had a certain evening every week on which 
they went to the daughter's house and took tea with the family. 
It was his habit, when about leaving his own home, to say to his 
wife : " Grace, put some tea in a piece of paper, for you know 
Dolly's tea won't be good." 




BIRD-OF -PARADISE . 



CHAPTER LIII. 

THE SCEPTICAL INVASION OF INDIA. 

One of the most serious questions connected with the press in 
India is the presence of sceptical tendencies. There is a break- 
up of the old faiths throughout the country. The trend is tow- 
ards either Christianity or infidelity. Many of the learned na- 
tives would rather see the infidel writings from England and 
America introduced into India than • Christianity. There are 
six hundred native newspapers in India, all of which, with the 
exception of about six, are bitterly opposed to the Christian re- 
ligion. The natives associate Christianity with the downfall 
of their ancient nationality, and the incoming of Western ideas. 
They welcome anything which will arrest Christianity. They 
have drifted away from their ancestral faith, and have not ac- 
cepted another. They are without any religious desire or prin- 
ciple. That is the status of the average educated Hindu to-day.* 

A parallel to the India of to-day is to be found in the uni- 
versal disruption of religions of the Roman Empire in the first 
three centuries of our era. Happily, Christianity was aggressive 
enough to step in and take the place of the dying systems. 

To India the most sceptical productions of the American and 
English press are sure to come. The infidel magazines reach 
the country by the first mail. Bradlaugh's writings are familiar 
to the people of Madras, just as Paine's " Age of Reason " is to 
the people of Calcutta and Bombay. Sir William Robinson says 
that Bradlaugh's writings are doing more harm than all the ab- 
surdities teeming from the native ^ press. The Free Thinker's 
Text-Booh and the National Reformer are eagerly read. The 
Philosophic Inquirer, published in Madras, is a thoroughly 
sceptical serial. It makes the "National Reformer its proto- 
type, Bradlaugh its hero, and Annie Besant its heroine. It 



* Slater, Paper in "Miss. Conf.," vol. i. p. 122 ff. 



THE SCEPTICAL INVASION OF INDIA. 473 

produces some of the foulest impieties of the West." A rich 
citizen of Madras spends a large sum every year in importing 
French and English works, and distributing them among his 
countrymen. One of these, the " Bible in India," a translation 
of Jacolliot's books, tries to prove that the Hebrew and Chris- 
tian revelations have their origin in Hinduism. 

Mr. Slater says that he has met, in his visits, with Mirabeau's 
" System of Nature," carefully underlined, as the only book in 
the possession of the native. The owner said he believed in, and 
troubled himself about, only what he could see. Even foreigners 
aid in this wretched business. A Madras army surgeon has been 
employing himself in delivering lectures to a Hindu literary as- 
sociation in favor of the Positive Philosophy. He gave two 
hours, on Sunday afternoon, to this work. When sceptical diffi- 
culties in connection with the Bible were brought to him, he 
said as much against revelation as he could. Even societies are 
being organized to reproduce and propagate the sceptical writings 
from England and America. An important one exists in La- 
bor, while another has its headquarters in Benares. Societies 
in England which are free-thinking find a ready harvest in India. 
The English Secular Society is a fair illustration. Its destruc- 
tive work is thus characterized in the Journal of the Transactions 
of the Victoria Institute, London, for 1885 : " It seems necessary 
to call attention to the immense exportation by the English Secu- 
lar Society of quasi-philosophical publications of an avowedly 
atheistic character not only to her colonies, but also to the great 
cities of the whole world. These societies are also indirectly 
promoting the secularization of education in India and the col- 
onies, even in schools founded by Christians for mixed educa- 
tion." In a circular signed by Lord Shaftesbury and others, 
dated June, 1883, was the following : " The literature of India 
itself is very inferior, and shoals of atheistic and infidel publica- 
tions are every year being sent to India from England. It is 
the bounden duty of Christian men to counteract this evil by 
aiding to create a healthy Christian literature." 

The natives who still adhere to the old Hindu faiths are loath 
to give up the struggle. When means are at their command 
they do not hesitate to use them to prop up the tottering sys- 
tems. Native rajahs interest themselves in circulating Hindu 
tracts, and have adopted shrewd methods .to carry on their 



474 INDIRA. 

work. The Rev. S. P. Jacobs reports that the country seems 
flooded with literature opposing Christianity ; that the Calcutta 
Theosophical Society receives a large subscription from a Ma- 
harajah ; and that the Madras Free Thought Tract Society, in 
addition to its tracts, supports a sceptical monthly. The follow- 
ing, from one of its tracts, is a high compliment to the aggres- 
sive spirit of the missionaries, and is also a fair illustration of the 
kind of logic used to support the decaying Hinduism : " How 
many hundreds of thousands have these padres [missionaries] 
turned to Christianity, and are still turning? How many hun- 
dreds of thousands of dear children have they swallowed up ? 
... If we sleep as heretofore, in a short time they will turn all 
into Christianity without exception ; and our temples will be 
changed into churches. So, if, as we see, no converts are com- 
ing into Hinduism, and every year multitudes are going over to 
Christianity, there will not be a single Hindu left." In Lahor 
50 rupees are collected every month for preaching Islam in the 
open air. In Bombay 16,000 rupees are subscribed towards 
making converts to the same faith. Of the one hundred and 
three newspapers in North India, all but two are opposing Chris- 
tianity. About the same relation exists in South India. Special 
agnostic papers are published by educated natives. Five Mo- 
hammedan papers join the Hindu in this form of antagonism* 
The Rev. Mr. Craven says that he knows of one rajah who is 
printing just now, at his own expense, two million of Hindu 
tracts, and intends to distribute them at the larger fairs in 
North India. The pictures of the gods best known to the 
Hindu pantheon are even lithographed in Germany and Eng- 
land, and brought out to Calcutta, and sold for native worship. 
I bought a package of these highly colored and realistic repre- 
sentatives of the leading gods of the Hindu pantheon, and have 
brought them home as accurate proofs of how the Anglo-Saxon, 
unintentionally, helps to continue Hindu polytheism. Though 
bought in Calcutta, they were manufactured under the shadows 
of the Protestant churches of England. A recent Baptist mis- 
sion report says : " There are printing-presses in Rangoon, one 
of them a steam press, owned and conducted by natives, which 



* Jacobs, "Our Mission Press in Madras;" also, "India: A Safe Invest- 
ment," 1888. 



THE SCEPTICAL INVASION OF INDIA. 



475 



are devoted to the printing of a Buddhist literature, and cheap 
editions, put in attractive forms, are exposed for sale on pagoda 




A HINDU MENDICANT PILGRIM. 



platforms, at steamer landings on the river, and wherever people 
are likely to congregate in all parts of Burma." There can be 



476 INDIRA. 

no doubt that a merely secular education in India is harmful. 
Religious instruction must accompany all educational processes. 
" Doubts as to all revelation and religion," says Mateer, " and a 
general spirit of scepticism, are often produced by a merely secu- 
lar education in the minds of Indian students. They experience 
a constant oscillation of ideas and opinions which puzzle and dis- 
tress them, without seeing their way to accept the definite teach- 
ing and authoritative revelation of divine truth which the Bible 
conveys. ' If we believe in one revelation, or incarnation,' argue 
some, ' we might as easily believe in ten.' In India a purely 
secular education and an acquaintance with Western science are 
taking from the people their ancestral religion and destroying 
all faith. Infidelity, atheism, and universal scepticism are being 
introduced along with European literature and culture ; and un- 
less we hasten to give them the Gospel of Jesus Christ they will 
be cast adrift, without chart or compass, on a sea of doubts and 
errors."* England is making an educated India. But she is 
not making a Christian India. The five national universities 
and the seventy or more colleges of the State are not teaching 
Christianity. The Bible and its teachings are excluded. The 
Rev. Dr. T. J. Scott, of Bareilly, in an article on the " Moral 
Education for Young India," in the Calcutta Review (1888), pre- 
sents a terrible arraignment against the connivance of the edu- 
cational department of the government at the sceptical tenden- 
cies in the schools and colleges, and even shows that, in one case 
at least, in the support of moral teachings in the Panjab Uni- 
versity the " natives have outrun the government." Dr. Scott, 
with withering logic, exposes the emptiness of the " neutrality " 
attitude in teaching, and proves that the moral education in the 
government schools and colleges of India is reduced to zero. 

This is a matter the missionaries cannot control. They are 
driven to establish schools of their own. They see their need and 
the opportunity, and they will not be slow to use their power to 
the utmost. 

The greatest need in India to-day is a colossal reinforcing of 
Christian publishing agencies. Where there is one press, with 
scanty support, there ought to be a thousand, with immense 
resources for publishing large editions of the most important 
religious works from England and the United States. 

* " Native Life in Travancore," p. 401. 



CHAPTER LIV. 

THE SOMAJES OF INDIA. 

Dueing the last half -century there has sprung up in India an 
important departure from the old Brahmanic faith. The Hindus 
have always claimed that their system is not a fixed thing, but 
that it admits of enlargement, and adaptation to changed con- 
ditions. Hinduism holds to the idea of new light and great 
changes, answering to the development of the times and the 
growth of the race. The presence of Christianity in India, and 
of its growing power over the native mind, has been the great 
factor in causing discontent with the Brahmanic faith in its old 
and stagnant form. The new reformatory movement within 
the Hindu fold has a theistic, and not a polytheistic, basis. It 
has already undergone serious changes; but every change has 
only proven the dissatisfaction of the educated native minds 
with the 'old idolatry. Down to the present time there have 
been four distinct associations, each with its literature, apostles, 
churches, and zealous adherents. 

I. — The Adi Bkahmo Somaj. 

This is the original society. It was established by the Rajah 
Rammohun Roy, who was born in 1780 and died in 1833. He 
formally inaugurated his movement by opening a prayer-hall 
in Calcutta, where he welcomed men of all creeds to worship 
the one true God. He gave a certain theological direction to 
the movement. But the first practical form for a permanent 
society was given by his successor, Debendra Nath Tagore, who 
in 1843 presented to the friends of the movement a solemn 
covenant, signed first by himself and then by the remaining 
adherents. By this they bound themselves to cultivate the 
habit of daily prayer and to give up idolatry. 

In 1858 the Adi Somaj received its first great impulse, when a 
young man, Keshub Chunder Sen, then in his twenty-first year, 



478 INDIKA. 

joined the society. His brilliant and fertile mind, eloquent 
speech, boundless enthusiasm, and rich acquirements of European 
knowledge, fitted him for this new position. He soon rose to 
great influence, and imparted to the Somaj an enthusiasm 
which it had not possessed. Up to this time the Adi Brahmo 
Somaj had no missionaries. But Sen gave up his position in 
the Bank of Bengal, and others united with him, and they de- 
voted their energies to advancing the new faith.* In 1861 he 
made a journey to Krishnaghar, and later created a great sen- 
sation in Madras and Bombay. In 1862 he was formally ac- 
knowledged as an Achargi, or Minister of the Somaj. Tagore 
was more conservative than his young companion, and though 
he was induced to throw off some of the accompaniments of the 
strict Brahmanic faith, he would not go the full length to which 
the brilliant and radical Sen was rapidly hastening. Embar- 
rassments and differences arose. Finally, Sen presented the 
following ultimatum as a condition of remaining in the Adi 
Brahmo Somaj : That the external sign of caste distinctions, 
such as the Brahmanic thread, should no longer be used; that 
none but Brahmos of sufficient ability and good moral charac- 
ter, who lived consistently with their profession, should con- 
duct the services of the Somaj ; and that nothing should be said 
in the Somaj expressive of hatred or contempt for other relig- 
ions. The ultimatum was rejected. The result was that Sen 
and his friends seceded, and laid the foundation of a new so- 
ciety — the Brahmo Somaj of India. 

The theology and philosophy of the Adi Somaj underlie all 
the new systems. The founder, Rammohun Boy, was a dili- 
gent student of theology, and mastered the English, Bengali, 
Sanskrit, Arabic, Persian, Greek and Hebrew languages, with 
a view to study the sacred writings of Hindus, Mohammedans, 
and Christians in the original. He arrived at the belief that a 
union of all religions could be effected under a form of mono- 
theism. He established and endowed a prayer-house in Cal- 
cutta, from which he excluded all idolatry, with the purpose 
of "promoting the contemplation of the Author and Preserver 
of the Universe," and strengthening the bonds of union between 

* Article on Brahmoism, "The Progressive Somaj," by Ram Chandra 
Bose, in the Indian Evangelical Review, July, 1883. 



THE S0MAJE8 OF INDIA. 479 

men of all religious persuasions and creeds. " His creed was 
simple rationalism." " He strove to please everybody, and suc- 
ceeded in pleasing no one."* He claimed adherence to Jesus 
" as the sole guide to peace and happiness ;" as " the founder of 
truth and of true religion ;" and as " the spiritual Lord and King 
of Jews and Gentiles." But he did not admit the divinity of 
Jesus, in the Scriptural sense. He was a unitarian, and con- 
stituted the Upanishads, and not the New Testament, the canon- 
ical scriptures of his association. His faith was a sad mixture 
of pantheism and monotheism. In attempting to reconcile all 
religions, he failed to find unity anywhere. His successor, 
Debendra Nath Tagore, made little improvement on the frail 
foundation which he found. Mr. Dall reports this : " On first 
visiting Debendra Nath Tagore, in 1855, I asked him whether 
he ever allowed the name of Jesus to be heard in his church ?" 

" No, never," he replied. 

" And why not ?" I said. 

" Because some people call him God." 

When Debendra Nath Tagore organized his church in Cal- 
cutta there was a formal announcement of the abandonment of 
polytheism. This is the covenant which he and his twenty 
friends signed : 

" 1. I will live devoted to the worship of that one supreme Brahma who is 
the creator, preserver, and destroyer (of the universe), the cause of deliver- 
ance; all wise; all pervading; full of joy ; the good; and without form. I 
will worship him with love, and by doing things that will give him pleasure. 

" 2. I will worship no created thing, as the supreme Brahma, the Creator of all. 

" 3. Except on days of sickness or calamity, I will every day, when my mind 
shall be at rest in faith and love, fix my thoughts in contemplation on the 
Supreme. 

" 4. I will live earnest in the practice of good deeds. 

"5. I will endeavor to live free from evil deeds. 

" 6. If, overcome by temptation, I perchance do anything evil, I will surely 
desire to be free from it and be careful for the future. 

"7. Every year, and in all my worldly prosperity, I will offer gifts to the 
Brahmo Somaj. 

" 8. O God ! grant unto me that I may entirely observe this excellent religion." 

The creed is beautiful enough, but it is one of only high mo- 



* Ram Chandra Bose, article " Brahmoism — The Adi Somaj," in Indian Evan- 
gelical Review, Calcutta, 1883. 



480 INDIKA. 

rality. When Sen proposed to advance beyond it, and make 
important approaches to positive Christianity, his overtures were 
rejected, and he left the Adi Brahmo Somaj and founded the 
Brahmo Somaj of India, or, as often designated, " The New Dis- 
pensation." The present president of the Adi Brahmo Somaj 
is Kajinarain Bose. Debendra Nath Tagore, Jr., is a member 
of the managing committee. This society is constantly declin- 
ing. Its aggressive character was lost with the departure of 
Sen. In both numbers and teaching it is losing its hold. Many 
of the persons who were its members, and signed its covenant, 
have disappeared as protestants against the Brahmo faith, and 
lapsed into idolatry or indifference. The four fundamental prin- 
ciples which the few followers still adhere to are the following : 
" That God alone existed from the beginning, and created the 
universe ; that he is omnipotent, omniscient, immutable, benev- 
olent, and supreme ; that by the worship of him alone can the 
greatest good in this life and the life to come be obtained ; and 
that to love him and do the works he loves constitute his 
worship." 

II. — The Bkahmo Somaj of India. 

This association was organized in 1866, and went forth before 
the world as the Bharatvarsya Brahma Somaj — the Brahma 
Somaj of India. Sen became its secretary and the practical ad- 
ministrator of its aifairs. There was no president, God alone 
being recognized as head.* A selection of theistic texts was pub- 
lished, taken from the sacred waitings of the Hindus, Moham- 
medans, Parsis, Jews, and Christians. These, with the Brahma 
Sangit and Sankistan, or Hymns and Choruses, were used in 
the Somaj services. The following motto, from the Bhagavad- 
gita, accompanied the texts : 

"As the bee gatheretb honey from flowers great and small, so does the 
really wise man gather substantial truth from the chaff of all scriptures, great 
and small." 

Two religious newspapers existing before the schism — the fort- 
nightly Dharma Tattva (Keligious Truth), and the weekly In- 
dian Mirror, which Chunder Sen was allowed to take possession 

* Slater, " Keshub Chunder Sen and the Brahmo Somaj," pp. 48 ff. Madras, 

1884. 



THE SOMAJES OF INDIA. 



481 



of, were utilized industriously by the new Somaj. The Society 
now addressed itself to great reforms, and, going far beyond 
the philosophical limits of the Adi Somaj, boldly invaded the 
sphere of religion. It made relentless war on the social evils of 
the Hindu system. Pamphlets of progressive character, in Ben- 
o-ali and English, were published and circulated widely. Female 
education was advanced; child marriages were condemned; 
widow re-marriage was advocated ; and, directly through Chun- 
der Sen's labors, in 1872, the government passed an act legal- 
izing Brahmo and civil 
marriages. This last was 
the great social reform 
of Chunder Sen's re- 
markable career. As an 
evidence of the prompt 
invasion of the rigid 
caste system by the 
Brahmo Somaj, during 
nineteen months of 1876 
and 1877 there were 
eighteen Brahmo mar- 
riages, of which ten were 
intermarriages between 
persons of different 
castes, and four were 
widow marriages. The 
bridegrooms' ages ranged 
from nineteen to thirty- 
seven, and the brides' 

from fourteen to twenty-six ; while eleven of the eighteen brides 
were specified as " educated." From July, 1861, to August, 1879, 
there were ninety-three Brahmo marriages, thirty-five of the 
brides being widows.* 

With the public appearance of Chunder Sen the reformatory 
or theistic movement passed from the narrow limits of the Ben- 
gali into the English language. Chunder Sen was very active 
with his pen. In 1865 he published his " True Faith," a devo- 
tional book, somewhat after the manner of Kempis's " Imitation 




KESHTJB CHUNDER SEN. 



* "Brahmo Year Books," for 1877-79, edited by S. D. Collet, London. 
31 



482 INDIRA. 

of Christ." In 1873 he published his " Essays, Theological and 
Ethical," and in 1872 and 1873 his "Brahmo Pocket-Diary," 
after the style of the Birth-Day Text-Books in England and 
America. His lectures were attended by large numbers of in- 
terested persons. When they were printed, they went far be- 
yond the audiences of India, and found their way to England 
and the United States. Christ was prominent in them. Every 
year Sen delivered a lecture in the Town-Hall of Calcutta, on 
the anniversary of the founding of the Brahmo Somaj, and the 
interest of both Europeans and natives was intense and wide- 
spread. His first lecture was delivered in 1866, in the Theatre 
of the Calcutta Medical College, on " Jesus Christ — Europe and 
Asia." It was an attempt to reconcile India to the gospel and 
person of Christ. Debendra Nath had said : " Theism is free. 
Popery was the first that robbed Christianity of its freedom, 
and, owing to its freedom, Protestantism has also lost its free- 
dom. . Let not the name of Christ enter into the Adi Somaj. 
Three hundred and thirty-three millions of gods and goddesses 
have been defeated by Brahmoism. Let us not be intimidated 
by another finite God." 

Such was the feeling in the educated minds of all India. Even 
the most hopeful reformer re-echoed it. He proclaimed the di- 
vine unity, but repelled the very thought of the divine Christ. 
Chunder Sen made a protest against this, the vital point, in his 
creed. He declared that Christ was a divine character. Through 
him the thought has permeated the whole country. " This feel- 
ing was dominant over the national mind till Chunder Sen came 
and dispelled the error. From that day the antipathy to Christ 
began gradually to disappear, and now almost every school-boy 
that makes a speech refers to him as the highest of divine charac- 
ters."* Now, if we analyze this divine Christ, according to the con- 
ception of Chunder Sen, much will be found that needs qualifying. 
While he progressed in his Christology clown to the day of his 
death, we do not find that he at any time believed Christ to be 
more than the highest manifestation of deity, and not absolute 
deity himself. Chunder Sen held up Christ and his gospel as 
the " means of man's renewal," as " sent by Providence to re- 
form and regenerate mankind ;" that " it is the Catholic Church 

* " The Liberal and the New Dispensation.'" February 3, 1884. 



TEE SOMAJES OF INDIA. 483 

of Christ that is opened wide to all men without distinction; 
that " in Christ, Europe and Asia are to learn to find harmony 
and unity." But, strangely enough, this great reformer " never 
called himself a Christian, but a theist." * Christ was more to 
him than all other teachers combined, but not the one supreme 
God. . In his lecture on " The Apostles of the New Dispensa- 
tion," f he says that his new dispensation — the theology of the 
Brahmo Somaj — is on "the same level with the Jewish dispen- 
sation, the Christian dispensation, and the Yaishnava dispen- 
sation through Chaitanya. It is a divine dispensation. Its 
distinguishing feature is its denial of a mediator. Fling away 
the sectarian small Christ, and let us be one in the large Christ 
of all ages and creeds." 

In 1881 he inaugurated the New Dispensation with much 
ceremony ; the Hindu, Buddhistic, Mussulman, and Christian 
Scriptures lying on a small table covered with crimson cloth ; 
the silk banner, " crimson with the blood of martyrs," was 
fastened to a silver pole, and fixed in front of the pulpit. The 
creed of the New Dispensation, to take the place of the Thirty- 
nine Articles, published in 1879, was the following : 

" One God, one Scripture, one Church. 

"Eternal Progress of the Soul. 

" Communion of the Prophets and Saints. 

"Fatherhood and Motherhood of God. 

"Brotherhood of Man, and Sisterhood of Woman. 

" Harmony of Knowledge and Holiness, Love and Work. 

"Toga and Asceticism in their highest development. 

" Loyalty to Sovereign." 

Chunder Sen, carrying out his eclectic system, performed cer- 
tain ceremonies. On one occasion, the Hindu Hari, or Saviour, 
Was invoked, and the Brahmos, in imitation of the followers of 
Chaitanya, joined the " Mystic Dance," with banners and music. 
At another time Chunder Sen performed the Fire Sacrifice, in 
imitation of the ancient Aryan worship, as the ceremony of 
conquering temptation.^ On still another occasion, the Hindu 
arati (offering) ceremony, or evening meal, was performed, 

* Slater, " Keshub Chunder Sen and the Brahmo Somaj," p. 61. 
f Delivered in Calcutta, January, 1881. ■ 
J On June 7, 1881. 



484 INDIKA. 

accompanied with burning incense, waving candles, numerous 
musical instruments, and the chanting of the arati hymn. The 
rites of foreign churches were not forgotten, but introduced and 
blended with Hinduism. The Lord's Supper and Baptism were 
performed, and adapted to Hindu life. From Eomanism, the 
vows of continence and poverty were borrowed, as also the rite 
of the canonization of saints ; while Comtism lent its system 
of dedicating each day of the week and year to a special cultus.* 

Chuncler Sen organized important Brahmo societies in various 
parts of India, and, wherever he went to lecture, he was heard 
with such interest as no religious reformer in India had been 
listened to in recent times. He visited England, and his audi- 
ences there were astounded at his eloquence and thoughts. He 
returned to India, and continued his work of theistic reform. 
In a short time his health failed, and he died at the early age 
of forty -five. His body was cremated on the same evening, 
amid an immense concourse of mourners and spectators. Since 
his death there has been an arrest in the aggressive power of 
the Brahmo Somaj. 

Chander Mozumdar, the author of a brilliant work, " The Ori- 
ental Christ," had been Sen's chief adherent. I had the pleasure 
of an interview with Mr. Mozumdar at his home in Calcutta. 
Of his pure purpose, serious thought, and correct life there can 
be no question. His personal bearing and appearance have been 
strong factors in his successful career as the most powerful as- 
sistant to Sen. Any one who sees him must confirm the fol- 
lowing portrait of him : 

" Mr. Mozumdar is a man of remarkably fine presence. He 
is a little over the medium height, with black, flashing eyes, 
raven black hair, and a complexion of such a clear and beautiful 
tint that when one has seen it he w T onclers how, as judges of 
beauty, we can prefer the chalky whiteness of the English type. 
His face shows intelligence in every feature and line, and in con- 
versation he is easy, pleasant, and dignified. We have called 
him a reformer. The ample outline of his form does not call 
to mind the Hindu devotee, who spends long years in prepara- 
tion for absorption, and is forgetful of his physical wants." f 

* Slater, "Keshub Chuncler Sen and the Brahmo Somaj," pp. Ill, 112. 
t The Independent, New York, Nov. 1, 1883. 



THE 80MAJE8 OF INDIA. 485 

Mozumdar made a visit to the United States in 1883, where 
he lectured, and came into close relations with the Unitarians 
of Boston. He is in profound sympathy with Christianity, but 
does not acknowledge the divine character of Christ. He speaks 
of him only as " the Son of God, the manifestation of divine 
character in humanity ; that character descends in Christ for 
the enlightenment, conversion, regeneration, and adoption of 
all men." In 1885, Mozumdar established in Simla The Inter- 
preter, as the organ of his views. Of the mission of the Somajes, 
we read in it the following hopeful outlook : 

" The truly worthy men among the different bodies of the 
Brahmo Somaj must fraternize some day. The three Somajes 
must exchange invitations to their respective pulpits. Nay, we 
even expect to find the day when men who do not profess the 
religion of the Brahmo Somaj, but whose spirit is the same as 
ours, shall be cordially welcomed to our churches and pulpits, 
to give us the advantage of their devotions and precepts. The 
present writer has been often invited by Christian ministers to 
conduct divine service, and deliver sermons from their pulpits 
to congregations whose views differ very materially from his 
own. There never was the slightest hitch or misunderstanding 
on such occasions, and will it be said that the universal religion 
of the Brahmo Somaj is incapable of such toleration? The 
Brahmo Somaj is undoubtedly a church, a community ; but it is 
not a .sect; it is open to receive good men, and good things from 
every church, every religion, every community." * 

The " Apostolic Durbar," or governing body of the Brahmo 
Somaj, consisted of all the apostles and missionaries, a total of 
twenty-one members. These had control of the spiritual in- 
terests of the Church. They resolved to keep the pulpit vacant, 
and the presidential seat in the Durbar also vacant. They held 
that the dead leader's doctrine of the immediate presence and 
influence of departed guides made it unnecessary to fill the va- 
cancy — that Chunder Sen was still present, and could have no 
successor. Mozumdar rejected this doctrine, and contended 
for his right to preach in the pulpit. This was not granted. 
Meanwhile, the Brahmo Somaj, while still publishing its pe- 
riodicals under the care of Chunder Sen's son, every year 

* The Interpreter, May, 1886, p. 5. 



486 INDIRA. 

is adding to the uncertainty of the future of the New Dispen- 
sation. 

III. — The Sadharan Brahmo Somaj. 

This is a secession from the Brahmo Somaj, which took place 
in 1878, because of a serious difference with Chunder Sen. One 
of the distinctive characteristics of the Brahmo Somaj had always 
been a protest against too early marriages, child widows, and 
other social evils of Hinduism. But on March 6, 1878, Chunder 
Sen gave his daughter in marriage to the young Maharajah of 
Kuch Behar. By the notable Marriage Act, largely secured by 
this great apostle of a new reform, the minimum ages for the 
bridegroom and bride were fixed at eighteen and fourteen years. 
But both his daughter and the young Maharajah were beneath 
these ages. Immediately a great outcry was heard all over 
India. Chunder Sen had violated his own social creed. He had 
compromised with the old Hinduism from which he had rebelled. 
In vain he pleaded certain excuses. Twenty-nine of the Pro- 
vincial Somajes united with the most of the members of the 
great central Calcutta Somaj, and formed a secession, which 
called itself the Sadharan, or Universal, Somaj. From that 
moment the Brahmo Somaj lost prestige, while the Sadharan 
Somaj, continuing adherence to the fundamental doctrines of 
the Brahmo Somaj, flung out its banner to the breeze and gained 
adherents in all quarters. 

Chunder Sen justified his course by holding that the marriage 
ceremony was only a formal betrothal. But this was without 
real force, and the public judgment pronounced against him. 
It was a real marriage. Idolatrous practices were adopted at 
the marriage. But these were adopted without Chunder Sen's 
knowledge, and under his decided protest. His leading apol- 
ogy was, that he was inspired to consent to the marriage of his 
daughter at her early age. He had already given out broad 
hints that he possessed adesa, or inspiration. He repudiated 
the claim to be a prophet, but held that he was "a singular 
man." In consenting to" the marriage, Chunder Sen held that 
he was acting upon the " actual will and commandment of God," 
and that he was ''compelled" to act as he did. The propriety 
of the marriage, he declared, was decided by his own special light. 
Before the question of this marriage arose, Chunder Sen had 



THE S0MAJE8 OF INDIA. 487 

exhibited a growing tendency to regard his doctrines as infal- 
lible truth. This had awakened serious opposition within the 
Somaj. When, therefore, the marriage took place, and he gave 
his consent to it, the time had come for many of his followers 
to withdraw from fellowship with him. It was a severe trial. 
He bore himself with becoming dignity. But nothing he could 
do had the effect of calming the storm. 

Sivanath Sastri, speaking for the Saclharan Somaj, stated the 
mission of this new theistic societv to be the folio wing- : 

" 1. To preach and propagate the idea of a personal God — the Parama 
Purusha, as in Sanskrit he is called, of a God who loves righteousness and 
hates sin. 

" 2. To preach and propagate, and also to teach by personal example, the 
idea of true spiritual worship — consisting of communion and prayer, as dis- 
tinguished from the outward observance of idolatrous rites; which idea, if 
once properly grasped, will inevitably give rise to spiritual struggles. 

" 3. To divest conceptions of piety from the errors of sentimentalism and 
mysticism on the one hand, and asceticism and ritualism on the other; and 
thereby to divert the religious enthusiasm of the people to channels of practi- 
cal usefulness, to fields of active philanthropy, and to the elevation of indi- 
vidual and social life. 

" 4. To seek to establish the grand ty.it often forgotten truth of the broth- 
erhood of man, by the overthrow of caste, and every other form of tyranny of 
class over class ; the elevation and emancipation of women being an important 
step in this direction. 

" 5. To promote freedom of conscience, to kindle the sense of individual in- 
dependence; thereby sowing the seeds of domestic, social, political, and spir- 
itual liberty. 

" 6. To communicate to the body of the people, through the means of indi- 
vidual lives, a living and conquering moral energy, born of faith and earnest 
prayer, which will impart strength and vigor to the exhausted moral and 
spiritual nerves of the race, and will help them to be morally and spiritually 
regenerated." 

The creed was declared to be the following : 

" 1. There is only one God, who is the Creator, Preserver, and Saviour of this 
world. He is a spirit, infinite in power, wisdom, love, justice, and holiness, 
omnipresent, eternal, and blissful. 

"2. The human soul is immortal, and capable of infinite progress, and is 
responsible to God for its doings. 

" 3. God must be worshipped in spirit aud truth. Divine worship is neces- 
sary for attaining true felicity and salvation. 

" 4. Love to God, and carrying out his will in all the concerns of life, consti- 
tute true worship. 



488 INDIRA. 

" 5. Prayer and dependence on God, and a constant realization of Lis pres- 
ence, are the means of attaining spiritual growth. 

" 6. No created object is to be worshipped as God, nor any person or book 
to be considered as infallible and the sole means of salvation; but truth is to 
be reverently accepted from all scriptures and the teachings of all persons, 
without distinction of creed or country. 

" 7. The fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man, and kindness to 
all living beings. 

" 8. God rewards virtue and punishes sin. His punishments are remedial 
and not eternal. 

'" 9. Cessation from sin, accompanied by sincere repentance, is the only atone- 
ment for it, and union with God in wisdom, goodness, and holiness is true 
salvation." 

The new Sadharan Somaj instituted a liberal order of gov- 
ernment. It was not to be ruled by one mind, but by officers 
duly elected by their fellows. The general officers are four in 
number, elected annually. They act in conjunction with a gen- 
eral committee of forty, also elected annually, and a certain 
number of representatives of branch Somajes. This committee, 
in its turn, appoints an executive of twelve persons for the year. 
This republican form of government was most flattering to the 
native taste for independence.. No one mind could control the 
body. A large prayer -hall, or church, capable of holding 
twelve hundred persons, was built in Calcutta, and opened for 
use in 1881. Various organizations were founded to promote 
the interests of this new and vigorous Somaj ; the Students' 
Weekly Service ; the Students' Prayer-Meeting ; the Theological 
Institution for lectures and discussions ; the Theistic Philan- 
thropic Society, for the moral education and improvement of 
working-men by a night school and house visitation ; the Brah- 
mica Somaj, for Brahmist ladies ; and the Bengal Ladies' Asso- 
ciation, for the union of lady members and non-members; a 
city school, for the higher education of boys, and a boarding- 
school for Brahmist girls, which trains girls for the university 
examinations. Its organs are, The Indian Messenger, a weekly, 
devoted to religious, social, and educational topics ; a monthly 
magazine for ladies ; a monthly magazine for children ; and a 
Bengali and English political and scientific weekly. The leader 
of the Sadharan Somaj is Sivanath Sastri, but care seems to be 
taken that no one man attain to a controlling influence. The 
first four missionaries were publicly set apart in 1880. A Mis- 



THE 80MAJE8 OF INDIA. 489 

sionary Committee has in hand the special work of training 
missionaries, who, after obtaining a certificate, go out preaching 
for one year as " probationers." The Executive Committee hold 
themselves responsible for maintaining the families and edu- 
cating the children of the missionaries. In addition to regular 
missionary laborers, many persons engaged in secular occupa- 
tions, including several Calcutta students, undertake preaching 
tours, and other means of spreading the faith. In Bengal alone, 
m 1884, there were ninety different Somajes, while others ex- 
isted in other parts of India. In all the three Somajes — the 
Acli, the Brahmo, and the Sadharan — there existed, in 1879, one 
hundred and thirty societies or Somajes. By 1884, this number 
had risen to one hundred and seventy-three, with fifteen hun- 
dred enrolled members, and about eight thousand adherents. 
By the present date it is safe to say that this total has increased 
at least thirty-three per centum.* There are, from last accounts, 
twenty-eight periodicals representing these three Somajes, of 
which fifteen are in Calcutta alone. 

IV. — The Arya Somaj. 

We now come to the consideration of a Theistic Society which 
differs essentially from the three preceding Somajes, and, never- 
theless, agrees with them in protesting against the current Hindu 
idolatry and all forms of caste. It is violently opposed to the 
other Somajes, and not less so to Christianity. No word of 
even cold admiration of Jesus Christ and his gospel is spoken 
by its apostles. It claims that the Hindu faith of modern times 
is a gross superstition. Idolatry, and caste, and all the grosser 
forms of existing Hinduism are simply corruptions, which have 
grown up through the ignorance and evil purposes of men. The 
Kig-Veda, the oldest of all the Yedas, never taught any such 
absurdities. Only the purest monotheism can be found in it. 
The Arya Somaj, therefore, proposes a radical reform of all 
the religious and social evils of India by returning to the 
primitive Aryan faith, as laid down in the earliest Indian Script- 
ures. 

This new Theistic movement arose in Gujerat, in Western 
India. It seems to have had no outward connection with the 

* Slater, " Keshub Chunder Sen and the Brahmo Somaj," pp. 82 ff. 



490 INDIRA. 

revolution going on in Calcutta, and yet, if we could trace its 
origin fully, we have no doubt it would be found to be due to 
the Theistic agitations prompted by the three Somajes which 
arose in Calcutta. Its founder, Dayanand Sarasvati, was the son 
of a Gujerati Brahman, and was born in 1825. His early der 
velopment was rapid, and out of the usual line. His father, a 
worshipper of the god Mahadev, taught the boy the same wor- 
ship. But the son read so much, and so widely, that his mind 
began to rebel against the absurdities of polytheism. When 
twenty-two years of age he forsook his father's family, and 
joined a company of fakirs, or mendicant priests. He heard a 
celebrated teacher, Anand Sarasvati, who gave a new shape 
to his whole life. The young man adopted an austere life, spent 
eighteen hours a day in meditation, travelled from place to 
place, and taught the necessity of a life of search for gyan and 
moksh — knowledge and salvation. He sought to turn the learned 
teachers from their old doctrines, and to teach nothing but the 
Vedas, and so help him to lead his countrymen back to the primi- 
tive Theistic faith. Here he failed. He then resolved to change 
his policy, and by means of rich men began to establish schools. 
He founded four of these, where the professors were paid about 
twelve dollars a month, and the pupils were provided gratui- 
tously with food, clothing, and books. The study of Sanskrit 
was the chief employment, and the object was to spread the 
knowledge of the Yedas. But here, too, he failed. He adopted, 
in 1875, his final method — to travel through the country, dis- 
tribute books, preach, and establish branch Somajes. This 
method proved successful. At the time of his death, in 1884, 
Dayanand Sarasvati had established Somajes in Bombay, Cal- 
cutta, the Northwest Provinces, Oudh, Bajputana, and the Pan- 
jab. There are now, throughout India, two hundred and fifty 
Arya Somajes. These, with an average of fifty members each, 
would make twelve thousand five hundred members. This is 
a low estimate, as the Lahor Somaj alone has five hundred 
members, and Bareilly three hundred. The chief Somaj is at 
Meerut. It is composed of twenty-three eminent and learned 
professors, and to them all reports must come.* 

* Neeld, "The Avya Somaj," Budaon (India), n. d., pp. 3 flf. This is by far 
the best work produced in the history of the Arya Somaj. 



TEE 80MAJE8 OF INDIA. 491 

The following is the creed of the Arya Somaj : 

"1. There is but one God. He is without body. Omniscient, happy, true, 
without beginning and without end, self-existent, omnipresent, holy, and we 
must worship only him. 

" 2. The Vedas came from the Oyan of Ishwar. They are without begin- 
ning, and were revealed to man through Rishis of ancient times. 

" 3. There are three things which had no beginning and will have no end, 
viz.: (1) God; (2) Souls; (3) Matter. Souls and matter came out from God, 
and are subject unto him. 

"4. The four Vedas are the only authoritative books, and they came from 
God by verbal inspiration. 

"5. Eternity is divided into four periods or ages — (1) Satyug; (2) Dwapar; 
(3) Treta; (4) Kalyug. The three eternal things act during these periods, 
and manifest themselves in the order of the ages as enumerated. 

" 6. God exists in two states, viz. : Nirgun and Sargun. When he is passive, 
does nothing, is in a comatose state, and no attribute can be affirmed of him, 
he is Nirgun, or without attributes. When he is active, does something, be- 
comes manifest, and attributes can be affirmed of him, he is Sargun. When in 
the state of Nirgun he came under the influence of mdya, or ignorance, and 
through that influence became Sargun, then the universe became manifest and 
souls became conscious. 

" 7. Sin can be affirmed only of that person who actually sins, and hence it 
cannot be said that all men are sinners. 

" 8. Prayer should be offered to God five times a day. 

"9. Obedience to God and a life ordered in accordance with the Veda will 
procure MuMi, or salvation." 

The Aryas hold that by obedience to the following ten prin- 
ciples, and a performance of daily duties according to the Veda, 
a person may attain to a better birth : 

"1. God is the origin of all true knowledge and all discoveries which are 
from that true knowledge. 

"2. God is the Creator of the world, is incorporeal, omniscient, omnipresent, 
happy, holy, and we should worship only him. 

" 3, The Vedas are the books of true knowledge, and it is the duty of Aryas 
to read them and teach them to others. 

"4. We must always be ready to give up untruth and accept the truth. 

" 5. All our acts must be performed according to the Veda. 

"6. The special object of the Somaj is to help others, in both bodily and 
spiritual matters, and to make such improvements or reforms as may be bene- 
ficial to all. 

" 7. We must live with love to others according to our religion. 

"8. Advance must be made in kuowledge, and ignorance must be ban- 
ished. 



492 INDIRA. 

" 9. Aryas should rejoice not only in their own prosperity, but also in the 
welfare of others. 

" 10. Persons performing duties for the public good must be subservient to 
others. In duties which concern our own persons we should be indepen- 
dent."* 

On the question of woman and marriage, now the uppermost 
social question of all India, the Aryas hold that Hindu widows 
should be permitted to remarry ; that girls should not marry 
until they are at least sixteen years of age; and that women 
should be educated. 

While all the Somajes have seized upon the press with enthu- 
siasm, as a means of propagating their opinions, the Arya Somaj 
has been foremost in the use of it. They have copied the meth- 
ods of the missionaries very closely. Their Catechism is modelled 
after these of the Christian churches. They have presses in 
Lahor, Agra, Muthra, Meerut, Bareilly, Allahabad, and other 
places. In the places where the members meet, books and peri- 
odicals are on the table. A Hindu translation of the Yeda is 
issuing in Allahabad, in monthly parts. Monthly papers are 
issued in Meerut, Lahor, and Bareilly. I have before me some 
numbers of the Arya Patrika, published in Lahor, in 1887, 
in which public meetings are reported, contributions are ac- 
knowledged, and independent essays are given, on such subjects 
as " The Poverty of India," " What is Brahmoism," and " Love, 
Justice, and Propriety should guide us in our dealings with 
others." 

The order of service of the Arya Somaj is as follows : The 
service is on Sunday, because on that day the public offices and 
courts are closed. The meeting is led by the most learned 
teacher. The services are opened and concluded with a form 
of prayer from the Veda. Songs are sung. The Yeda is ex- 
pounded. The whole service is a gross imitation of Christian 
worship. Women and children are enrolled as members, but 
women do not attend the services ; but, if they wish to know 
what has been done, must ask their husbands to tell them. The 
following " Ode to the Aryas," printed on the cover of The 
Catechism, published by the Central press, is a fair declaration 

* Om, " The Arya Catechism ; or, The Indian Youth's Aryan Moral Com- 
panion," Meerut, 1886, p. 29. 



THE 80MAJE8 OF INDIA. 493 

of the spirit which animates all the members of the Arya Somaj, 
and is no doubt sung at their services : 

" We are the sons of brave Aryas of yore, 

Those sages in learning, those heroes in war; 
They were the lights of great nations before, 

And shone in that darkness like morning's bright star, 
A beacon of warning, a herald from far. 

" Have we forgotten our Rama and Arjun, 

Yudhishtar, or Bishma, or Drona the wise? 
Are not we sons of the mighty Duryodhan ? 

Where did Shankar and great Dayabanda arise ? — ■ 
In India, in India, the echo replies. 

" Ours the glory of giving the world 

Its science, religion, its poetry and art. 
We were the first of the men who unfurled 
The banner of freedom on earth's every part, 
Brought tidings of peace and of love to each heart." 

There is a branch of the Arya Somaj even in London. The 
hymn-book used in the service is entitled " Theistic Hymns." 
Nearly all the hymns are from Christian hymn-books. Among 
them are the following : 

" My God, my Father, while I stray, . 

Fa* from my home on life's rough way, 
O teach me from my heart to say, 
Thv will be done." 



And, 
And, 

And, 



" O God, our help in ages past, 
Our hope for years to come." 

" Death blights not, chills not, but awakes 
The heart's immortal, pure desires, 
O'er the dark vale a glory breaks 
From heaven, to which the soul aspires." 

" My God, my Father, blissful name ! 
O may I call thee mine ?" 

But the Arya is eclectic. He borrows a gem wherever he 
can find a lending hand. Accordingly, in his Theistic Hymns, 
for use in the London congregation, are the folio wino-: 



INDIKA, 

The boy stood ou the burning deck, 
Whence all but him had fled." 



" Tell me not in mournful numbers 
Life is but an empty dream." 

There's a magical tie to the land of our home 

Which the heart cannot break though the footsteps may roam." 

" India, thou best of the climes of the world, 
Where victory attended thy banners unfurled ! 
O country of sages ! O land of the brave ! 
Thou cradle of poets and the heroes' proud grave."* 



* Comp. Forman, " The Arya Somaj : its Teachings and an Estimate of it/ 
pp. 61, 62. Allahabad, 1887. 



494 



And, 



And, 



And, 




CHAPTER LV. 

RELIGIOUS SIGNIFICANCE OF THE REFORMATORY MOVEMENTS. 

Is this new uprising in India a spasmodic effort, without rela- 
tion to the general thought of the people ? Or is it a logical 
growth, and important to the life of India % Studied in any light, 
it is of great moral and religious significance. Men of such pure 
life and rich mental endowments as Rammohun Roy and Chun- 
der Sen may be charged with that vanity, confined to no age or 
race, which takes its supreme pleasure in moulding the opinions 
and bending the purposes of men, and through them, as willing- 
adherents, in founding a new social and religious structure. But 
there is a more just solution of such careers. That Dayanand, 
the least admirable of the Brahmic apostles and the most unfa- 
vorable to Christianity, was a deceiver, and playing a stage-trick, 
is denied by both the Voluntary sacrifices of his' youth and his 
steady preaching of theism in his maturer years. When India 
shall have become wholly Christian it will not be surprising if 
it shall appear that the bright clay has been hastened, not alone 
by the sublime labors of Christian missionaries, with their pure 
Gospel from the Occident, but also, though in an inferior degree, 
by those grosser and weaker efforts from the very body of the 
Hinduism of the Orient. It is one of the historical glories of 
Christianity that, for its greatest triumphs, it not only marches 
to victory by virtue of its own irresistible potency, but that it 
transmutes all that is good in the hostile ranks to minister to 
the final achievement. There is every indication that the the- 
ists, who have laid the foundations of all the Somajes, are, like 
neo-Platonism and other predecessors of all Christian ages, build 
ing more wisely than they know. 

The appearance of Rammohun Roy at the head of the whole 
theistic movement of the last half-century is not the first time 
that better thoughts, gathering around the finest elements of 
monotheism, have crystallized in distinct approaches to the Script- 



496 INDIRA. 

ural conception of the divine unity. As the Hindu goes back 
to the oldest hymns of his Vedas, he finds that they breathe the 
spirit of monotheism. Even the pantheism of India has its 
foundation in God's unity. The present Hindu idolater, when 
closely questioned, does not deny the oneness of the Supreme 
Ruler.* He holds that his many gods are only manifestations, 
incarnations, and material forms of the one God. Every now 
and then, in the better and purer periods of Indian history, a 
new emphasis has been placed on monotheism. Apostles of a 
weak form of theism have arisen and protested against the gross 
idolatry. 

In the twelfth, thirteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries 
the Yaishnava reformers protested against the degradation of 
the original monotheistic faith. They inculcated a doctrine 
which was an approximation towards the Christian idea of 
God's unity and personality, as set forth in the first article of 
the Church of England : " The one Supreme God, of infinite 
wisdom, power, and goodness, the Maker and Preserver of all 
things," was taught clearly and forcibly by those four great 
reformers — Ramanuja, Madhava, Yallabha, and Chaitanya. But 
the apple of gold was set in a picture of spurious silver. That 
this one God could descend and become incarnate in warriors, 
thinkers, and even lower animals, was a fatal mistake. A Su- 
preme God of many possible descents was no god at all. Reac- 
tions came on, and the last idolatrous state was worse than the 
first. 

The great reformer of the sixteenth century was Kabir, one 
of the twelve disciples of Ramanand. f He set before himself 
the impossible task of fusing Brahmanism and Mohammedan- 
ism. He rejected both the Vedas and the Quran ; discarded 
idolatry and caste ; preached the unity of God ; and made broth- 
erhood, based on love to God and the practice of good works, 
the spiritual bond of his disciples.:]; His followers came from 
both the Hindu and Mohammedan folds, and at his death he 
was canonized. Shortly after him arose, in the sixteenth cent- 

* Monier Williams, " Religious Thought and Life in India," pp. 475 ff. 

t Monier Williams places Kabir in the. sixteenth century (" Religious Thought 
and Life in India," p. 476). Slater assigns him to the fifteenth century (" Ke- 
shub Chunder Sen," p. 21). 

t Slater, " Keshub Chunder Sen," p. 11. 



SIGNIFICANCE OF REFORMATORY MOVEMENTS. 497 

ury, the " Luther of the Panjab "— Nanak Shah. He founded 
the Sikh sect, which still exists, and has its stronghold in the 
Panjab. Govind, the tenth Sikh ieacher, impelled by the per- 
secutions of the Sikhs by the Mohammedans, so shaped the pol- 
icy of his adherents that the Sikhs and Mohammedans have ever 
since been implacable enemies. Thus the brotherhood became 
as much a fiction as that of the Jews and Samaritans. Even 
the Mohammedans, who have never claimed any sympathy with 
idolatry, have attempted the same undertaking of reconciling 
the conflicting religions of India. 

Of the five Mogul emperors, Akbar was in many respects the 
greatest. He was also the most tolerant. He was the Marcus 
Aurelius of India. He borrowed from all the faiths of which 
he knew, and thus set up his fabric of the divine monotheism on 
Hindu, Parsi, Mussulman, Jew, and Christian foundation. He 
was so eclectic in his opinions that the passion gave color to his 
matrimonial tastes, and this " guardian of mankind," as his sub- 
jects adoringly called him, was so impartial as to take one em- 
press from the Hindu fold, another from the Mohammedan, and 
a third from the Christian. 

All these efforts at producing a reaction against the idolatry 
of India were failures. All possible zeal and voluntary poverty 
were employed. In vain was it declared that the original teach- 
ers of Hinduism were monotheists. ' There was no basis of gen- 
eral truth on which to build. There was no Gospel from which 
to learn the true incarnation ; no Christian Church to serve as a 
model ; no consecrated Christian lives in which to see the prac- 
tical lesson of the divine unity in human existence. 

From the days of JSTanak Shah and the great Akbar, in the 
sixteenth century, down to Rammohun Roy, there was no seri- 
ous attempt to find in the Vedas a principle of divine unity and 
to preach it to the people. For three centuries the millions of 
India were destitute of a teacher in whom could be seen the 
faintest approach to one who had caught sight of a syllable of 
the divine oracles. It has been only in the present century, 
since the missionaries planted the banner of the cross in all the 
centres, and carried it into the very jungles, that a new race of 
reformers has arisen, and preached the abolition of caste, the 
brotherhood of all men, and the unity of God. 

That there is variety in the theological bases of the four So- 
32 



498 INDIRA. 

majes need not surprise. The three Somajes which arose in Cal- 
cutta have most affinity with Christianity. The leaders breathed 
the very atmosphere of the Gospel. They saw its preachers, 
churches, schools, and press. It was the faith of the conquerors 
and rulers of their country. Would these reformers ever have 
arisen without the practical lesson of the Gospel before their 
eyes ? ISTo. Take the rays from the Scriptures out of the words 
and work of all three, and there would be nothing left. The 
most eloquent periods of Chunder Sen were spoken of Jesus, 
while the greatest book produced by any of these theists — " The 
Oriental Christ," by Mozumdar — was an attempt to give to 
Christ an Eastern character. The Arya Somaj, which has little 
to say of Christianity, and speaks of it only to oppose, arose in 
a part of India w T here Christianity is less dominant. But even 
its very methods are borrowed from those adopted by the mis- 
sionaries. After the manner of these missionaries, its seven 
itinerant preachers of the Yeda go through the country, pitch 
their tents at the melas, or fairs, and preach three or four 
hours a day. They* are establishing an Arya college at Ajmir, 
and already have an orphanage in Ferozepore, and are starting- 
one in Bareilly. The president of an Arya Somaj proposed to 
the Rev. Mr. Neeld to join him in opening schools among the 
low-caste people of Budaon. 

The plausibility of the arguments of the preachers of this most 
hostile of the four Somajes is so well conceived, so forcibly pre- 
sented, and so safely guarded, that the common people are easily 
led astray. The methods employed by the Somaj teachers — 
their advocacy of schools and female education, their bold repu- 
diation of all forms of idolatry — in a word, their strong empha- 
sis on everything which the new theism has in common with 
Christianity — are in every way calculated to make the natives 
regard for a moment the cause as identical with Christianity. 

The most specious of all the arguments employed by the 
preachers of the Arya Somaj, and by the great body of Hindu 
people and priests who are still in the toils of the old idolatry, 
is the claim that all the best forms of Christian civilization and 
of Western culture have their real basis in the eldest Yedas. 
No Hindu doubts the great superiority of the new age to any 
former one. He knows that without the Englishman his India 
would be as far in the background as it was a thousand years 



SIGNIFICANCE OF REFORMATORY MOVEMENTS. 499 

aero. But how has it all come about? To whom does India 
owe even the civilization of the Englishman and even the Amer- 
ican ? To none other than the far-back founders of his own faith. 
The apostles of the Arya Somaj declare that every modern 
conquest over the great forces of nature was anticipated by their 
seers and foretold in their Yedas. It is difficult, even when 
they quote these precious promises, for a dull Western mind to 
see the appositeness of the prophecy. But that is the misfor- 
tune of the Anglo-Saxon's dull perception. Here is where Da- 
yanand finds the Vedic formula which lies at the root of all 
medical science : " O God, by thy kindness whatever medicines 

.jl* dp v / v 



^L /y^T~^^>^t^^cc- : f^/sp'7, 



A SOMAJ NOTICE. — FAC-SIMILE OF KESHTJB CHUNDER SEN S HANDWRITING. 

there are, for us they are givers of ease ; and for those who are 
injurious, evil, and our enemies ; and with what injurious ones 
we keep hatred, for them they are injurious." Far journeys 
were known — so says the founder of the Arya Somaj — to the 
primeval teachers of his faith. 

In the chapter " Concerning Travel," in the " Satyarth Pra- 
kash," Dayanand says that the Munis and Rishis and others 
used to travel in foreign countries. Yiyash Muni, who lived 
five thousand years ago, and translated the Yedas, and his son 
Sukhdev, and their disciples, went to Patal — that is, America — 



500 INDIRA. 

and dwelt there ! One day the son asked the father for knowl- 
edge, and received for answer that he must go to Hindustan 
and ask the rajah. It is related that Krishna went to America 
and brought back Udalak Muni, to the sacrifice prepared by Rajah 
Udhistir. At another time an Indian rajah went to America, 
fought and overcame the American rajah, who gave his daughter 
in marriage to the conqueror. Dayanand declares that all the 
English knowledge of the railway, the steamship, fire-arms, and 
the telegraph has come from the Yedas, and that the English 
have only developed this knowledge received from the Aryan 
Yedas. In his chapter on " The Science of Travelling," * he holds 
" this science of rapid transit in the sea, on the earth, and in the 
sky as taught in the Yedas." He says : " Whatever man is a 
desirer of excellent knowledge, and of gold, and of other things 
from which his nourishment and pleasure arise, he may fulfil his 
desire for the acquisition and enjoyment of that wealth and suc- 
cess by means of the things that are written further on. Who- 
ever, having made various kinds of steamships of gold, silver, 
copper, brass, iron, wood, and other things, and having added 
fire, air, water, as wanted, and having filled up with cargo for 
merchandise, comes and goes in the sea and rivers, then there is 
increase in his wealth and other things. Whoever spends his 
manhood in this way acquires these things, and cares for them, 
and will not die in misery. For he, being in full manhood, is not 
slothful." f 

Dayanand explains that the vehicles for rapid transit are of 
three kinds — for travel on land, in the sea, in the sky. Now 
Dayanand says that Ashwi, found in the Yedas, means the mo- 
tive-power for all these vehicles ! It is either fire, flame, water, 
wood, metals, horses, lightning, air, earth, day, night, sun, or 
moon ! Therefore, we have the railway-car, the telegraph, the 
universal application of steam for " travelling." The same apos- 
tle of modern Hinduism finds in the Yedas a description of the 
division of the Indian railway carriage into six compartments ; 
the speed with which it is drawn ; the machinery for drawing 
and backing a train. He even describes a sky-vehicle. It is to 
rest on twelve pillars, must have machinery in sixty parts, which 

* "Rig Vedadi Bhashya Bhurnika," pp. 191-200. 
t Formah, " The Arya Somaj," pp. 50 ff. 



SIGNIFICANCE OF REFORM A TOR Y MO VEMENT8. 501 

must be fastened by three hundred large nails or screws. If, 
therefore, we are destined to be blessed with comfortable and 
safe flying -machines, the quick-witted Arya will be ready to 
say, " Did we not tell you so ? Lo, it lies in the Yedas of our 
ancestors." 

The Hindus not affected with the theistic heresy of the Soma- 
jes go further than Dayanand or any of the Brahmists. They 
hold not only that the Vedas contain prophecies of all modern 
inventions and discoveries, but that Brahma is a being of vari- 
ous incarnations. The application of steam is a recent incarna- 
tion, and therefore is a part of the Hindu system. When the rail- 
ways were introduced into India the high-caste Brahmans would 
not ride on them. To travel in contact with one of lower caste, 
and especially with foreigners, was regarded as a mortal sin. 
The difficulty was great. The pundits rolled their eyes in ec- 
static wonder. The waiting for reply was intense. At last it 
came, substantially as follows : " The Yedas prophesied the rail- 
way. Brahma has undergone a new, blissful incarnation. Hurry 
up! Get aboard." Therefore the most exclusive Hindu can 
now crowd into any railway of India or Burma, and from Bom- 
bay to Mandalay can coolly take his tramway ticket from the 
dog-paw of an Englishman or an American. 

Taking the theistic movement, prompted by the four great 
Somajes, as a whole, it must be admitted that the missionaries 
are seriously divided in their estimate of it. Some regard it as a 
great evil, promising no good. But there are others who take 
a more hopeful view. They can see. in the three progressive So- 
majes, especially, some elements of advantage to the good cause 
of the Gospel. The Kev. Mr. Keelcl finds in even the grossest 
and worst Somaj, the Arya, some indications of help to Chris- 
tian work. I believe the latter class are correct, and for the fol- 
lowing reasons : 

1. Everything which tends to break up the solidarity of the 
polytheistic mass of the Hindu faith must be advantageous to 
the spread of the Gospel. The whole history of the territorial 
expansion of Christianity shows that every disintegrating factor 
proved a blessing. It caused weakness, a loss of confidence, a 
fear that Christianity would find an entrance wherever an open 
door was left. 

2. The reforms at which the four Somajes have aimed are not 



502 INDIRA. 

only in harmony with missionary work, but actually parts of 
regular missionary operation. The education of girls, temper- 
ance, opposition to child-marriage, the founding of schools, and 
the printing of books and newspapers are alike parts of Chris- 
tian enterprise and the theistic machinery. 

3. The many discussions and publications of the preachers of 
the Somajes relate to European topics, and familiarize the native 
mind with the advance of Christian nations. Every new piece 
of information concerning any part of the Christian world, every 
recognition of a direct or indirect triumph of the Gospel, is only 
a new reminder of what the human mind achieves when blessed 
with the light of the Gospel. 

4. The forms of service in all the Somajes are merely feeble 
imitations of Christian worship. Many natives who attend the 
theistic service see a world-wide difference between it and the 
idolatrous temple - service, and, being accustomed to the new 
order, can never again feel at home in an idolatrous temple. 
The estrangement is final and complete. 

5. Through the emphasis of the Somajes on the Yedas it 
will yet appear to the whole Hindu mind that the Yedas are 
empty fables, and deserve to stand beside the myths of Hesiod 
and the visions of Mohammed. The awe with which the typ- 
ical Hindu regards the Yedas is amazing. The Yedas are in 
Sanskrit, and not one learned Hindu teacher in a hundred knows 
that language. It is to him what the Greek and Latin are to 
the Englishman and American. Those who translate it, as 
Dayanand and others, do as they please with it. They make 
its ashwi mean steam, and its patal mean America, and the 
poor uneducated native must believe it. But others are trans- 
lating the Yedas, and showing that even the Hindu translators 
have been only playing on the blind credulity of the natives. 
Amazing progress has been made by the missionaries, since 
the rise of the Somajes, in unfolding the true meaning of the 
Yedas. Dr. Martyn Clark, of the Church Missionary Society, 
has published, at Lahor, a most valuable series of pamphlets 
on the "Principles and Teaching of the Arya Somaj," in 
which he shows, by exact reproduction of the language of 
the Yedas, that the Arya Somaj cannot find authority for its 
principles in them, but that they teach idolatry and many 
of the grosser forms of the present polytheistic worship in 



SIGNIFICANCE OF REFORMATOBY MOVEMENTS. 503 

India.* Is he not right? Is it not safe to judge the tree by 
the fruit ? Every temple in India is the natural child of the 
Yedas. Hence, by going back to them, it is only a return to 
the corrupt fountain of a corrupt faith. Had the Arya Somaj 
done nothing else than to bring the missionaries now laboring 
in India to take up the Yedas for a new study, not because they 
are a Sanskrit classic, but because of their theological absurdi- 
ties, and subject them to the burning lens of Christian exami- 
nation, its indirect and undesigned service would have been 
incalculable. 

6. All the Somajes repudiate the temple. They build their 
own prayer-houses, or churches. Now the very sight of these 
new edifices is a reminder to every native passer-by that here is 
a structure in opposition to the temple. It is a drawn sword 
against the faith which underlies the Golden Temple of Amrit- 
sar and the holiest fanes of Benares. 

7. The divergences among the Somajes are an open declara- 
tion of the fruitless search for unity even in a return to the 
Vedas. There are minor divisions among even members of the 
same order. When the leading teacher dies the Somaj is lost 
for a time. When Ch under Sen departed his Somaj lost all ag- 
gressive power. Since Dayanand's death some of his followers 
declare that he has come to life again. At this time there is a 
serious division among the Aryas on this very ground. The 
attacks of these Aryas on Christianity are becoming so violent 
as to affect even the persons of missionaries. They have stirred 
up mobs, who have assailed and beaten Christians. In Lucknow 
they have abused also the Mohammedans. Strange to say, the 
latter are now joining hands with the Christians against their 
persecutors, and say to the Aryan preachers, " You may speak 

* Some of Dr. Clark's lectures are fine specimens of critical skill. Among 
them are the following: "The Origin and Age of the Vedas," "The Justice 
of God," "The Nature of God," "The Knowledge of God," and "The Vedic 
Doctrine of Sacrifice." All these are published in Lahore, and the first four 
in a second edition. These little works, unfolding the inner absurdities of 
the Vedas, and the absolute antagonism of them to the very doctrines which 
the Brahmas would draw from them, would be good reading for some of the 
English and American admirers of the early sacred literature of India, who 
profess to find in the Vedas a very fine, and about equal, companion- work to 
that other Oriental work, the Old Testament. 



504 INDIRA. 

against Christians as much as you like, but not against Christ ; 
we hold him a sinless prophet, and when you attack him you 
will have us as well as the Christians to oppose." * 

8. The brotherhood of man preached by all the Somajes is an 
axe laid at the root of the old Brahmic tree. All the apostles 
of the four theistic societies declare relentless war against the 
despotic cruelty of the caste system. Every word spoken against 
this monster must, in the end, be helpful to the Gospel. 

9. The public advocacy of the moral element in education in 
the government schools by the Somajes is in the very line of 
missionary operation. In a recent very able article on " Moral 
Education for Young India," in the Calcutta Review, by T. J. 
Scott, D.D., we find copious extracts from the Liberal and New 
Dispensation and the Arya Patrika, in which the government 
is severely attacked, not only for allowing infidel writings from 
Europe to be used in the schools, but for the general want of 
thorough ethical culture. Surely, it is no little significant that 
the leaders of the new Hinduism should advocate the introduc- 
tion of the best ethical writings of Europe in the schools of India. 

It must not be forgotten that the first stages of a movement 
of this radical character do not furnish the best opportunity for 
safe judgment as to final effect. When the Somajes shall have 
gained a larger following, and theism shall have become the cen- 
tral dogma of multitudes now in idolatrous bondage, it may come 
to the light that the Gospel shall reap a rich harvest among them. 
The theists have turned their backs upon the old faith. They do 
not incline to enter the Christian temple ; but many of them are 
slowly advancing towards the outer court. Like Plato, Seneca, 
and Epictetus, they are unconscious searchers for the true light. 

* Rev. B. H. Badley, D.D., in letter from India. 



CHAPTER LYI. 

THE OPIUM CURSE IN INDIA. 

There is moving along the quay at Calcutta a long train of 
wagons, drawn by toiling, puffing bullocks. I am belated a 
little, and must hurry for the train, to spend my only day at 
Serampore. Our driver pushes his horses to their best, to get 
in advance of the line of wagons. By and by we pass them all, 
though the process has been slow. The wagons are evidently 
laden with the same ware, and are destined for the same point. 
Each is piled up with chests, all of equal size and appearance. 
They are on the way to the customs, to be inspected or to be 
shipped directly to China or other countries. "What are the 
contents of those heavy chests? Each chest contains 133| 
pounds of opium. The Queen's government for India pro- 
duces every pound. It provides the land, lends the money to 
the cultivator, receives and stores the whole amount, auctions 
it off at periodical sales in Calcutta to merchants who send it 
to them, and puts the profits in its own treasury.* 

Has England ever made a greater contribution to the world's 
wretchedness ? Formerly her opium went to China alone ; now 
it girdles the world with a zone of sorrows. She even gives 
opium to her London children in Godfrey's Cordial, and to her 
invalids in Bauley's Sedative Liquor and Jeremy's Sedative 
Solution, f 

The traffic in opium is the darkest blot on the page of Anglo- 
Saxon history in India. The more carefully we inquire into the 
methods by which the English took sole charge of the culture 
of the poppy plant, made a complete monopoly of the drug ex- 
pressed from it, and then smuggled it into China, until they 
compelled that country to admit it as a legal import, the more 

* " Traffic in and Use of Opium," p. 5. , 1882. 

t Drury, " Useful Plants of India," p. 330. London, 1876. 



506 



INDIRA. 



surely is the conclusion reached that the whole transaction is 
devoid of a single mitigating circumstance. It must forever 
stand as a terrible crime against Christian civilization. 

History of the Teaffic. 

There have been three stages in the development of the opium 
evil in India. The first was the farming out the culture of the 
poppy to the highest bidder. The second was the smuggling 
of the opium into Chinese ports against the most rigorous Chinese 
laws, and even the death penalty for violation. The third was 

the downright compulsion of China 
to open her ports to the introduction 
of opium from India. These facts 
seem incredible, and yet each is sup- 
ported by the clearest and most posi- 
tive proof. 

"When the English went to India 
first, in the seventeenth century, they 
found that the culture of the poppy 
was largely a monopoly of the native 
Mogul princes. There is no doubt 
that the Mohammedans brought it 
with them from Arabia, and estab- 
lished it in India at about the same 
time that they began their memorable 
conquests in the valleys of the Indus 
and the Ganges. This early attach- 
ment of the Arab to opium accounts 
for the larger use of it by the Mo- 
hammedans of India than by the 
Hindus. Possibly, as the Mohammedan is interdicted by the 
Quran from the use of ardent spirits, he rejoices in finding 
full compensation in the use of opium. The East India Com- 
pany was not slow to perceive the chances for gain. It applied 
itself with consummate tact to the most direct methods of amass- 
ing wealth. They were careful to study the native usages, and, 
wherever it was possible to make them serve their purpose, to 
appropriate them. They no sooner saw that the culture of the 
poppy was already a native monopoly than they began to study 
the propriety of securing the same advantage. There was, how- 




THE POPPY PLANT. 



THE OPIUM CURSE IN INDIA. 507 

ever, some degree of caution at first. Not the Company as 
such, but some of the officers, on their own account, were the 
first Englishmen who cultivated the poppy and made money 
out of the opium from it. These were social servants in the 
Patna Factory.* 

The opium bait was attractive. Why could not a company 
do what some of its agents were doing? If there was money 
to be made from the poppy, why should it not be done in a 
broad and public way? No moderate opportunities must be 
lost. The Englishman was in India for the purpose of trade 
only. Probably not one of the early English navigators or 
traders ever thought of the permanent occupation and posses- 
sion of a foot of Indian territory. The whole curse of the Anglo- 
Saxon's planting of the poppy and cultivating it, and first smug- 
gling it into China, and then forcing it upon the same country, 
grew with the opportunity. It was a terrible temptation, and 
was not resisted. But this must be said, that the latest chapter 
in England's encouragement of the opium trade is a natural 
result of the first tampering with the crime. The great wrong 
lay far back, with a few persons. History will take its deep 
revenge. Millions must sometimes pay the penalty for the far- 
back crimes of a few dozens, and many years of sorrow become 
the price for the crime of an hour. 

The Trade in the East India Company's Hands. 

The East India Company took the trade in opium out of the 
hands of the few civil servants of the Patna Factory, and used the 
proceeds to buy goods. But how should the Company make the 
wisest use of the new source of trade ? What means would be' 
the best to yield the largest revenue ? It was a new matter, and 
required tentative measures. In 1773, the East India Company 
took the opium monopoly entirely out of the hands of the Patna 
Council, and leased the whole business to two natives for a fixed 
sum. It was found that the revenue was not satisfactory. 
Good husbandmen as the natives of India were, it was not clear 
that they could make the best return. The opium monopoly 
was put up at public auction. It must have been a wonderful 
scene when the public crier announced for the first time in 



* " Reports of the House of Commons," 1783, vol. i. p. 70. 



508 INDIKA. 

India the sale of the opium monopoly. The natives, no doubt, 
supposed that they could get the largest return from a plant 
with which they were familiar. They, of course, were on hand 
to bid for the monopoly. But the Anglo-Saxon was there too. 
He had calculated his chances. He knew just what he could 
do. He knew how much he would have to pay the natives to 
work for him ; how many acres he would put in poppies ; and 
how much of the drug he could reap for his harvest. So he bid 
against the native. The native became frightened at the bold- 
ness of his competitor. The Englishman outbid him. The 
native retired forever from his place as the manager of the 
opium culture of India, and the Englishman took his place. The 
stranger from a Christian land was to control the poppy and 
its poison, and get all the profit from the trade, while the native 
henceforth was to do all the heavy work of its cultivation. 

Now it was intended by the East India Company that the 
opium monopoly should be continually sold at auction. For 
what purpose ? They openly declared that they sold the monop- 
oly to the highest bidder because this would correct an evil 
growing out of the monopoly. It would "prevent the British 
contractor from becoming doubly terrible to the natives when 
they should see that his contract was in effect a grant." * Here, 
then, was the comfort which came to the Company. They were 
not selling the monopoly of the opium production of India to 
the highest bidder. They were only making a grant ! 

But the auction method was not satisfactory. A new plan 
was adopted. The directors of the East India Company did, 
indeed, require that competition should be used ; but the local 
government at Calcutta disobeyed the orders, and, with Warren 
Hastings at the head, in 1776, farmed out the monopoly directly 
to an Englishman by the name of McKenzie. The Company 
could cancel the arrangement with McKenzie, but they never 
did it. They contented themselves with reprimanding Hastings, 
the G-overnor-General, and his Council. Hastings had in his 
family one Sullivan, and it was important that this individual 
should be put in possession of funds. The method adopted to 
bring about this desirable result was successful. "When the 
three years' contract with McKenzie for the opium monopoly 

* Cf. "The Poppy Plague," p. 32. London, 1876. 



THE OPIUM CURSE IN INDIA. 509 

had expired, this Sullivan became the fortunate possessor of it. 
There was no competition on his part. He did not need to 
trouble himself to propose to take it. He simply received the 
offer of it. He then sold his contract outright to a Mr. Benn, 
and he in turn to a Mr. Young. It is no wonder that the Com- 
mittee in the House of Commons came to the conclusion that 
the contract was given to Sullivan for no other purpose than 
to supply him with a sum of money.* 

With the taking of the poppy culture out of native hands, 
and the control of the monopoly in opium by the East India 
Company, the first chapter in the history of the great crime ends. 

Opium Fokced* on China. 

The next chapter is brief. It is the story of India, under 
English rule, getting such complete control of the opium trade 
as to regard it no longer as an article of merchandise, but of 
great revenue. The India market, however, was too narrow for 
such a result. It is clear that larger tracts of land were put 
under the cultivation of the poppy, and the consumption at home 
was not sufficient to exhaust the supply. But the genius of War- 
ren Hastings was equal to even this emergency. The opium 
of the East India Company must be disposed of at all hazards. 
There had been already a small opium trade carried on between 
India and China, probably overland, through the passes of the 
Himalayas. The first supplies had been taken probably about 
the end of the seventeenth century, f But to Hastings belongs 
the rare honor of doing away with this slow method. He char- 
tered a vessel, with the concurrence of his Council, for carrying 
opium to foreign ports, and especially to China. A small trade 
in the commodity had been carried on with Batavia, but the 
Dutch War had put an end to the market there. A new market 
must be found, and China solved the problem. But one vessel 
was not enough. Neither must the method be a mere incident. 
There must be a system. The outcome was, that the trade in 
opium to Chinese ports was undertaken by the government of 
British India. The first contract is a curiosity. Colonel Wat- 
son, an Englishman, was to carry the first regular shipload of 

* Cf. " The Poppy Plague," p. 35. London, 1876. 
t Ibid., p. 37. 



510 INBIKA. 

opium. His vessel bore the appropriate name of the Nonsuch. 
He needed guns to protect his vessel, for opium was contraband 
in every Chinese port. The British government in India cast 
some cannon for the special purpose, while others were brought 
from Madras, a distance of seven hundred miles. Soldiers and 
medical stores were also supplied. Then came other ships. 

Now, the iniquity of this beginning of the opium trade with 
China lies in the fact that it was purely a smuggling operation. 
China was doing all in her power to prevent opium entering the 
country. Her rulers and their advisers were resorting to all pos- 
sible measures to keep the drug away from the people. It would 
seem that the men who represented the Chinese government 
could foresee, a century ago, the evils which China must cer- 
tainly suffer should her people become cor- 
rupted by the use of opium. They declared 
that none of it should cross the frontier. 
Severe penalties were visited upon any vio- 
lator. These penalties were increased from 
time to time. The whole power of the gov- 
ernment was used to keep opium out of the 
country. Yet the English in India kept on 
sending it. 

the poppy capsum In all English history there is not a more 

after the petals re pulsive picture than that of the receiving- 

^sions A ha E ve been ships lying at Lin-tin as late as 1834. The 

made. Chinese succeeded in driving away the British 

trade in opium from Macao, and so the dealers 

drifted down to the mouth of Canton Eiver, and anchored among 

the islands. Their vessels were safe here. They were well armed, 

and could resist attack from the Chinese, and could smuggle 

opium into the country. Thus Lin-tin became the depot of the 

opium trade for all China. 

The English traders from India were trying to get opium into 
the country, and the Chinese doing their utmost to keep it out. 
And this became an affair of years. The clipper ships which 
brought the opium for China from Calcutta were the fastest on 
the Eastern seas. By the year 1834 the annual amount of opium 
brought from Calcutta had gone up from five thousand to twenty 
thousand chests. Meanwhile other ports for the enforced entrance 
of opium were established along the Chinese coast. The trade 




THE OPIUM CURSE IN INDIA. 511 

between India and China was confined largely to opium, and all 
the while China was fighting to keep it out. As a specimen of 
the large profit arising from the trade, a Mr. Innes, in 1831, dis- 
posed of three hundred and thirty thousand dollars' worth in one 
voyage. But Mr. Majoribanks, in the following year, was less 
successful. He took opium to new Chinese ports, but the peo- 
ple knew nothing of the drug, and refused to buy. The venture 
proved a failure.* Such was the persistence with which the 
English in India carried on the work of forcing opium upon the 
Chinese. 

It must be admitted that the government in Calcutta made its 
deliverance on the illicit character of the trade in opium with 
China. Here is what the directors said in 1787 : " It is beneath 
the Company to be engaged in such a clandestine trade; we, 
therefore, hereby positively prohibit any more opium being sent 
to China on the Company's account." This sounds well enough. 
But Warren Hastings went on with his measures, and the Com- 
pany, while now and then issuing strong decrees against the 
illicit trade, continued to enlarge the cultivation of the poppy 
at home and the trade in opium abroad. 

America's Share in the Crime. 

But Americans are not without blame. The young and grow- 
ing commercial spirit of the United States reached as far as those 
Eastern seas. The Chinese government published an edict in 
1821, in which it gave an account of the recent seizure of the 
cargoes of one American and three English vessels at Canton 
for introducing opium in violation of the Chinese laws. One 
half of the cargoes of the vessels was confiscated as penalty. 
The Viceroy of Canton, finding that this seizure was a great 
affliction to merchants, remitted the penalty, but forbade the 
selling of the cargoes and the carrying away of any tea or rhu- 
barb. Besides, a memorandum of these ships and their mer- 
chants was made, and they were prohibited forever from com- 
ing to Canton for trade, f 

Here, then, we have the picture of England and the United 
States combining to force opium upon China. 

* "The Poppy Plague," p. 55. 

t Niles, Register, December 21, 1822. 



512 INDIRA. 

In 1886 we find the first attempt made by a Chinese official 
to secure the legal entry of opium from India into China. Heu 
Naetse memorialized the Emperor to admit opium under a duty. 
His plea was that the imperial revenue would be enriched. But 
a member of the Imperial Council, Choo Tsun, opposed the prop- 
osition. The result was a vote of the Emperor's Council in favor 
of renewing the measures to keep opium out of the country. 
Violence against the illicit trade was resorted to. The opium 
ships were driven from Lin-tin in 1837. The emperor kept a 
close watch on his officers, and used all possible measures to 
keep out of the country the opium brought by English ships 
from India. 

The final stage in the relation of the English government to 
the enforcement of opium upon China was brought about by 
war. It grew out of the death of a Chinaman in a quarrel with 
some English and American seamen. The Chinese felt aggrieved, 
and cut off supplies of food. Captain Elliot, of whom Gladstone 
said, in the House of Commons, that " he had completely identi- 
fied himself with the contraband traffic in opium," began the 
war by firing the first shot. In 1840 a British fleet arrived, un- 
der Sir Gordon Bremer. The war continued nearly three years. 
England conquered, and the treaty of peace which she compelled 
was based on the following hard conditions : The payment to 
England of a vast indemnity within three years for meeting the 
expense of the war, the opening of five ports to British trade, 
and the ceding of the island of Hong Kong to the British Crown.* 

The Chinese did all in their power to secure in this treaty the 
prohibition of the opium traffic. But the English would not con- 
sent. They wanted the opium trade to go on as before. The 
wicked trade promised too much gold to the Indian treasury to 
be sacrificed. Lord Palmerston put the matter on new grounds. 
Instead of demanding that opium be admitted to Chinese ports, 
he said he would leave it as a free-will offering from China. 
" Her Majesty's government make no demand in regard to this 
matter; for they have no right to do so." But the argument 
was unavailing. The Chinese Emperor would not yield. Opi- 
um, with all the humiliation and weakness of defeat upon China, 
was to be kept out of the country. All through the war opium 

* " The Poppy Plague," pp. 75 ff. 



THE OPIUM CURSE IN INDIA. 513 

had been introduced into China, and large profits made by the 
sales. But the Chinese convicted of dealing in the drug, or even 
using it, were severely punished. In Canton the violators could 
be seen in gangs of forty or fifty, with shackles on their hands 
and feet. It was, indeed, death for a Chinaman to trade in opi- 
um. But the merchants of India, and the government as well, 
were providing fresh supplies all the time.* 

But one more war was needed to throw China open to the 
opium curse. The pretext soon came. A Chinese vessel had 
bought of the local British government at Hong Kong the right 
to carry the British flag. The Chinese officials knew she was <a 
Chinese ship, and boarded her as a pirate. The English claimed 
her as belonging to their country. War broke out again. The 
English were once more victorious. China was compelled to pay 
again the costs of a war, and to suffer, in the two wars, the loss 
of thirty thousand lives. More ports were opened to English 
trade, and the Chinese government was compelled "by moral 
suasion, the force of which lay in an irresistible fleet and army, 
to legalize the importation of opium." England, therefore, in 
this wise, compelled China to accept her opium, and would not 
allow more than ten per cent, duty to be charged upon it. Thus 
it has come to pass that now 12,911,840 pounds of opium, or 
two thirds of all the opium produced in India, goes to China. 

But the most remarkable act in this terrible tragedy is yet to 
come. In the treaty of Tientsin, between England and China, 
there was a clause by which each party should have the right to 
demand a revision of the commercial clauses. China was grieved 
over the opium which came from India. She wanted to prohibit 
the curse. Sir Rutherford Alcock says : " They were insisting 
and urging, by every argument they could adduce, the necessity 
of the British government consenting to the total prohibition of 
opium." f Sir Rutherford said afterwards that, had China even 
then declined to admit opium, she would have been compelled to 
fight England ! 

The Opium Culture Produces Famine. 
The relation of the culture of the poppy in India to the hap- 



* "The Poppy Plague," pp. 77, 78. 
■f "Report, East India Finance," 1871, Nos. 5870, 5865. 
33 



514 INDIKA. 

piness of the people is very close. The temptation is to plant the 
herb, for the profit from it is far greater than from any cereal. 
The cultivation of the poppy in Malwa results in from three to 
seven times the profit derived from wheat and other cereals, and 
sometimes from twelve to twenty times as much. The constant 
tendency is to put a larger acreage in the cultivation of the poppy. 
Now and then large tracts of country are visited with great fam- 
ines. Experience has proven that in these very districts the pop- 
py is most cultivated. Not enough cereals are cultivated to sup- 
ply the people with food when any great flood, drought, or 
other calamity befalls the people. Behar, the very home of the 
poppy culture, for example, was visited by three great famines 
in eight years. 

In 1883 the area of territory devoted to the cultivation of the 
poppy in Bengal was 876,454 acres. Any one can cultivate it 
who wishes, but the government, having still the monopoly, is the 
only purchaser. The native gets about three shillings and six- 
pence per pound. But the government must make its profit, 
and so it sells it at about eleven shillings per pound.* The profit, 
therefore, instead of going into the laborer's hand, goes into the 
treasury of Christian India. 

The price of opium in India depends upon its range of prices 
in the Chinese markets. After all expenses are paid, the annual 
revenue to the government is upwards of 9,000,000 pounds 
sterling gross, and 6,000,000 pounds sterling net. . It is levied 
in two ways : one, on the eastern or Bengal side, by opium made 
in state factories, from poppy cultivated under state supervision, 
and sold by auction at Calcutta, on the state account, to mer- 
chants who export it to China; the other on the western or 
Bombay side, by the export duty levied on opium made by pri- 
vate manufacture from poppy grown in native states, f 

The missionaries are, to a man, persistent in their opposition 
to the production and sale of opium. Their crusade is destined 
to take wide range. Already a monthly magazine is devoted to 
this single object, and a vigorous society has been at work for 
some years past in the same interest. Motions to abolish the 
traffic have repeatedly been made in the House of Commons. 

* "Encyclop. Brit.," vol. xvii. pp. 787 ff. 
t Temple, "India in 1850," p. 239. 



THE OPIUM CURSE IN INDIA. 



515 



But the financial straits of the Indian government have for many 
years been such that neither party feels able to grapple with the 
problem. The first participation in the evil was simply for gain ; 
but in process of time the revenue derived from opium became 
so large — namely, 8,500,000 pounds sterling — that the govern- 
ment now depended upon it. In other words, the Indian gov- 
ernment has become entangled in its own chain, with which it 
thought to bind its helpless neighbor, China. 

He who will begin a popular movement against the "grand 
government opium monopoly of India, unlimited," and arouse the 
English masses against it, will achieve a victory beyond that of 
Trafalgar and Waterloo. His name will take its place beside 
that of Clarkson, Wilberforce, Howard, and Florence Nightin- 
gale. 




INSTRUMENT USED 
FOR MAKING IN- 
CISIONS IN THE 
CAPSULES OF THE 
POPPY. 



CHAPTER LYII. 
XPKA. SH ARAB— YOUR HONOR'S fire-water. 

It is an appropriate term by which the natives of India de- 
scribe the intoxicating liquor which the people drink — Apka 
Sharab, or Your Honor's Fire -Water. They not only denote 
their contemptuous estimate of the fluid, but also the strong hand 
which furnishes it to the millions, at the rate of four cents a bottle. 

Early Distillation. 

We do not mean to say that intoxicating drinks had not been 
manufactured and used in India before the coming of the Euro- 
pean. Indeed, the earliest records give proof that the people 
of the country understood the art of fermenting simple fluids, 
and drank them to intoxication. If in Noah's day the art was 
practised, and the sin committed, it need not surprise that the 
early history of all nations should reveal the same facts. The 
most ancient Hindu books, giving us information dating back 
three thousand years, inform us that the Aryans made an in- 
toxicating fluid of the juice of the Soma, or " Moonplant," which 
they regarded as highly acceptable to their gods, and was there- 
fore lawful for man. This drink was used in the later Yedic 
times. " It was made," says Macdonald, " from the juice of a 
creeper {Sarcostomma viminalis), diluted with water, mixed with 
barley meal, clarified butter, and the meal of wild rice, and fer- 
mented in a jar for nine days. The starchy substance of the 
meal supplied the material for the vinous fermentation, and the 
soma juice the part of hops in beer. Its effects on gods and 
men were those of alcohol." * The gods were invited to drink 
freely of it, and are represented as having been intoxicated by 
it. But we do not find that the drunkenness of a god was ever 
regarded as a virtue. On the contrary, it seems to have been 

* "The Vedic Religion," p. 41. 



AREA SHARAB—YOUR HONOR'S FIRE-WATER. 517 

considered rather an infirmity than otherwise. Rishi says to 
Indri : " Thy inebriety is most intense, nevertheless thy acts 
for our good are most beneficent." The Puranas, of still later 
date than the Yedas, represent Siva as drunken in his habits, 
and his eyes inflamed with intemperance. The Institutes of 
Manu recognize the practice of fermenting and using intoxi- 
cating beverages, and lay down regulations for the classes of 
distillers and vendors.* 

The aboriginal races of India were acquainted with the same 
practice before the incoming of the Aryans. They have never 
lost either the art of distilling or the passion for drinking. They 
distil or ferment intoxicating liquors from the cocoanut, sago, 
date, and palmyra palms, from sugar and rice, and from the 
dried flowers of the Bassia latifolia. 

The People of India Temperate. 

Now, although the fermentation of liquors, and the drinking 
of them, were long practised, the great body of the people con- 
tinued temperate. There does not seem to have been either any 
general craving for intoxicating liquors, or any large sale of 
them. Though made up of many races, and presenting a sin- 
gular variety of languages, religions, intellectual strength, and 
social condition, no people of India, whether aboriginal or Aryan, 
were addicted to intemperate habits when Vasco da Gama first 
landed on their shores. This is easily understood. So far as 
the Hindus are concerned, their religious caste and social hab- 
its — with the exception of one low-caste sect — have in modern 
times prohibited the drinking of any spirituous liquor, while the 
Quran requires total abstinence of every Mohammedan. In the 
earlier period of English rule, it was much easier to discover the 
original condition of the Hindus than at present, since the force 
of European .example and the government excise have made it 
possible for all to drink. The testimony of Warren Hastings, 
who had excellent opportunities to witness the natives in their 
undisturbed condition, is therefore of the highest importance. 
He says this : " Their temperance is demonstrated in the sim- 
plicity of their food, and their total abstinence from spirituous 
liquors and other substances of intoxication." 

* Mateer, "Native Life in Travancore," pp. 278 ff. 



518 INDIRA. 

The manufacture and use of intoxicating liquors was discour- 
aged by the rulers, both Hindu and Mohammedan. No Mogul 
emperor ever thought of reaping a profit from the manufacture, 
or did, what the English government now does, stand sponsor 
for the distillation and sale.* All intoxicating beverages were 
unclean things to a Mohammedan. None of the nobles under the 
Moguls used it ; or, if so, in such a way that the fact has not gone 
into history. Akbar and some other rulers indulged, but we 
can well imagine that with the religious requirements against 
it, the people regarded such violation as an infirmity which re- 
ceived their pity or censure rather than their admiration. When 
the late Maharaja of Kashmir gave encouragement to Euro- 
peans to plant grapes and hops for wine and brewing purposes, 
the orthodox Hindus seriously considered whether he ought not 
to be put out of caste. But his sickness and death followed 
soon after, and the Hindus regarded his fate as Heaven acting 
for itself in this violation of the law of the " heaven-born" ruler, f 

In 1787, the King of Travancore prohibited the use of cocoa- 
nut brandy under pain of confiscation of property ; the drink- 
ing of ganja hemp and the use of opium were forbidden at the 
same time. Mateer, in stating this fact, however, supposes that, 
as this measure was not sustained a long time, the people must 
have been so addicted to the use of those drugs as to make it 
necessary to abrogate the law. We do not doubt that in some 
localities there was intemperance. But we claim that all the 
authorities go to show that no Indian government reaped an 
excise revenue from the manufacture and sale of any intoxi- 
cating liquor ; that the religious castes and social customs were 
in favor of temperance ; and that the vast body of the people 
were not only temperate by habit, but never acquired the pas- 
sion for intoxicating drinks. 

Canter Nisscher, who wrote about a.d. 1723, says of the Por- 
tuguese that they had no taste for strong drinks, but adds : 
" The Dutch, on the contrary, drink to such an extent as to 
expose themselves to the reproaches of the Portuguese and the 
natives ; the English are liable to the same imputation." % The 

* Gregson, " Drinking and the Drink Traffic in India," pp. 3, 4. 
t Extracts from paper by Surgeon-Major Pringle, M.D., pp. 1, 2. 
\ Mateer, "Native Life in Travancore," p. 280. 



APKA SUARAB—YOUR HONOR'S FIRE-WATER. 519 

French also were drinkers of lighter liquors. But the English 
were addicted to liquors containing more alcohol. We can well 
understand, therefore, the power of the example of the English 
when they gradually gained influence over both natives and 
foreigners. That example for evil has been increased in mani- 
fold ways since the entire political power of India has passed 
into their hands. Disguise it as we may, at the moment when 
the East India Compaii}^ set up its first factory, and heard the 
jingle of its first rupee on the bottom of its treasure-box, India 
and Ceylon were occupied by races who were practically total 
abstainers from all intoxicating drinks. 

We shall see directly what have been the effects of the Eng- 
lish rule upon the country, not only in reaping a vast harvest 
from the furnishing of intoxicating drinks, but in implanting 
the passion for drink among the millions of the country. 

The Distillation of Indian Liquors. 

For our account of the distillation of Indian liquors, and the 
various kinds now used by the people, we must depend on Mr. 
Mateer. " The common fermented drink is called Kallu," he 
says, " or toddy " (Hindustani and Sanskrit, iadi), the vinous sap 
of the palm, drawn in North Travancore from the cocoanut- 
tree, by the Ilavars and Chogans ; in the South from the pal- 
myra by the Shanars. It ferments after standing for a few 
hours in the heat of the day ; and spoils, turning into sour vine- 
gar in two or three days. Of this pleasant sub-acid drink the 
people say that a pint, or a pint and a half, will intoxicate a man. 
It is generally employed for yeast in making wheaten bread 
and rice-cakes. Arrack is an ardent spirit, transparent and col- 
orless like gin, abundant and cheap throughout India. It is, 
properly speaking, rum, being distilled from palm-sugar with a 
small quantity of acacia-bark — or from the fermented sap of the 
palm. To distil spirits, the jaggery or unrefined sugar is broken 
up and put in water to ferment along with the bark for four 
days, then the whole is boiled in an earthen pot, the vapor being 
caught at the top in a tube of bambu and carried on so as to 
fall into another pot, or into some condensing-vessel placed in 
cold water. Distillation is effected in half a day. Sometimes 
the first product is redistilled. When manufactured from toddy, 
a quantity, say eight edungalies, is taken on the second day 



520 



INDIKA. 



after being drawn from the trees, and put in a large earthen pot 
on an oven. On the top of this a small earthen pan, having three 
holes at the sides, is placed, and over this a brass pot containing 
cold water. The edge of the intermediate vessel is tightly se- 
cured with cloths so as to retain the vapor, and from a hole in 
one side a pipe is fixed to convey the spirits into a bottle. The 
cold water in the upper vessel, which is open to the air and 
used for condensing, is renewed from time to time as it becomes 
heated, until the whole quantity is distilled. Women generally 

attend to this work. Ten 

^1 



quarts of toddy will yield 
about two of proof spirits. 
A small quantity of the first 
product of the distillation 
must be thrown away, be- 
ing sour and hurtful. The 
first bottle drawn will be 
first-rate arrack; the second 
bottle, second quality; the 
value respectively, twelve 
and ten chuckrams ; total, 
twenty -two chuckrams, of 
which the profit to the 
distiller will be about five 
chuckrams. Less than a 
chuckram's worth will in- 
toxicate some men. To 
make the very best arrack, 
toddy and arrack are mixed 
together and distilled. The 
people believe that it is 
in order to impart a strong intoxicating quality that the 
bark of Karinja {Acacia leucophlaea) is added; but Brandis, 
in his " Forest Flora," p. 184, says that it is added on ac- 
count of the tannin it contains, in order to precipitate the albu- 
minous substances of the palm - juice. On the east coast, 
spirits are commonly distilled from a mixture of rice -flour, 
sugar, and toddy, so that the government dues are fixed with 
some reference to the market price of rice. The spirits pro- 
duced are not considered equal in purity and excellence to 




CLIMBIKG THE TODDY-PALM. 



APR A 8HARAB—Y0UR HONOR'S FIRE-WATER. 521 

those distilled from palm -juice or sugar alone on the western 

coast."* 

The Government and the Liquor Traffic. 

The entire relation of the British government in India to the 
use of intoxicating liquors presents a striking parallel to that 
of other countries in dealing with the same vice. How to make 
money out of a vice is the problem. The end to be reached is 
the filling of the treasury of the state. The method of reach- 
ing it is by putting a tax upon the liquor, or as it is called in 
India, " country spirits." The fallacy lies in supposing that 
there is a commercial advantage when the last analysis is reached. 
Is there money in the treasury ? No ; on the contrary, the state 
is worse off.* In order to see that the treasury is really under- 
going a constant depletion, one must add the loss of physical 
labor, the destruction of domestic competence, the criminal costs, 
the reports of insanity, the abridged longevity, and an intermi- 
nable catalogue of evils to the moral and religious life of the 
people. The tax on the use of liquor, like every bounty paid 
by a state for the existence of a vice and the committal of crime, 
is a losing process, whether in Calcutta, London, or Washington. 
India, in these terrible results, is like all other countries which 
reap a harvest from excise on intoxicating liquors. In her pres- 
ent condition she furnishes a fair warning to other countries 
which have been her teachers in vices hardly less than in 
virtues. 

The excise regulations of the government of India began in 
Bombay in the year 1790. It was claimed that the people be- 
gan to develop a taste for liquor, and that the cost of a quart 
of mowhra spirit, made of the juice of the palm, was so low — 
only a half-penny — that anybody could get drunk on it. Then 
the fallacy came at once to the front — tax, and therefore restrict. 
Put a tax on the tree, and the people will drink less. This was 
the outspoken argument, a good exoteric weapon in defence 
of the excise. The real argument was nothing of the kind. 
Tax the juice of the tree, and the government will have all the 
money it wants — that was the whole philosophy, and it has 
been steadily adhered to in India for a whole century. The 

* Mateer, "Native Life in Travancore," pp. 279, 280. 



522 INDIKA. 

object of the government has been to raise money out of the 
vice, and not to suppress the vice. 

Two systems have been adopted by the government, which 
is the real purveyor of liquors to the people of India. The 
manufacture has not been allowed to everybody. Such impor- 
tant work must be conducted in such a way that fraud cannot 
be perpetrated — in other words, that every gallon of liquor dis- 
tilled must be sure to pay its tax into the treasury of the em- 
pire. 

The first method adopted was that of the Government Dis- 
tillery. Its general name was the Sudder (Upper) Still system. 
There was one still, or only a very few, in the district. The 
arrangement was beautifully patriarchal. The government was 
the responsible proprietor of every distillery in the land. It 
built large sheds for the distilleries, provided all the necessary 
utensils for distillation and measurement, and set apart special 
police to watch the pandemonium. It was the owner of the 
machinery. Now, to do the work, there was a native contractor. 
He was closely watched. The amount turned out by each dis- 
tillery was fixed by law. A duty was levied on still-head — 
that is, a certain rate was levied per gallon according to strength. 
Only a certain number of distilleries was permitted in each dis- 
trict. Then only a limited amount of London proof liquor was 
allowed to be produced from a certain amount of material. For 
example, the rule was that only two and a half gallons of proof 
spirits were to be manufactured from eighty pounds of Mowah 
cassia latifolia. The size of the stills was limited, and only pure 
liquor could be manufactured, and from wholesome material. 
The distillery was strictly watched by the government police, 
and the drink kept under lock and key. There were other 
safeguards, by which the output of liquor was comparatively 
limited. What was the result ? The government did not make 
all the money it wanted for its general treasury. In order to 
carry on the government, six hundred and forty thousand pounds 
sterling were assigned to the Excise Department of Bengal, as 
its share to meet demands. But under the Government Distil- 
lery plan only from five hundred and fifty thousand to six hun- 
dred thousand pounds sterling had been raised for years. It 
seldom went beyond six hundred thousand pounds sterling. ISTow 
came the demand for six hundred and forty thousand pounds 



APKA SHABAB—YOUB HONORS FIRE-WATER. 523 

sterling. What was to be done? The old principle could not 
be worked up to that pa} T ing basis. 

Now came a happy thought. The old Sudder system must 
be given up. It did not put money enough into the treasury. 
Mr. C. T. Buckland must go down to posterity as the brilliant 
man who was equal to this occasion. His genius evolved the 
Out Still system. He laid it before the government. It was 
adopted. The treasury soon had all the money it wanted. The 
Government Distillery was a ruin, and the Out Still was erected 
on the site. The new arrangement was introduced in the year 
1876, but did not go into complete operation until two years 
had passed. But when once in full motion, it answered all ex- 
pectations — except those of the friends of temperance. It filled 
the treasury to overflowing, but covered many a fair plain with 
drunkards. 

Let us now look at this brilliant invention — the Out Still of 
New India. All the Sudder distilleries for country spirits must 
be shut up. The right to set up Out Stills, or stills outside gov- 
ernment control, must be offered at auction to the highest bid- 
der. He can distil what he likes, and as much as he likes, on 
condition that he keep his bargain with the government to pay 
the price at which he bought his right to distil. He buys for 
one year, just as he would hire a house. The auction is held by 
a district officer, near the magistrate's office, and superintended 
by a district officer or deputy magistrate, as the case may be. 
The government, in this way, is released from all expense and 
from all supervision. 

The Times of India thus describes one of these government 
auctions : " Yesterday afternoon the Town Hall was the scene 
of a good deal of excitement. The last public auction sale of 
liquor licenses was held there by the Collector of Bombay. 
Parsis, Hindus, Goanese, and native Christians mustered in 
great force, the large hall being nearly full of men, women, and 
children. The first-class shops were put up first at the reserved 
price of five hundred rupees each, and, in spite of the moan made 
to government regarding the rigid laws that obtain with regard 
to spirit licenses, every shop fetched a considerable amount over 
the price fixed on it by government. Though there will be no 
sale next year, these prices will hold good for three years, as 
the licenses will only be renewed on payment of their value at 



52i INDIRA. 

this auction. After that, of course, the value will be assessed 
by the Abkari inspectors. Out of the fifty licenses put up, forty- 
nine were sold ; the fiftieth was bought in, as the police objected 
to the locality. The sale will continue to-morrow, and for some 
days to come yet, as four hundred and fifty licenses remain to 
be sold. It is hardly worth mentioning that the government 
are turning a pretty penny by the rivalry of the bidders, for 
even here every caste seems to exult over the downfall of another. 
The sales are fetching more this year than they did this time 
twelve months ago." 

Now, the direct result of this system is that the number of 
distilleries has been vastly increased. The people can now get 
all the liquor they desire. The Out Still is before all eyes. The 
increase in revenue is enormous. During the last five years there 
has been an increase in India's revenue from liquor of six hun- 
dred and sixty thousand pounds, or nearly twenty per cent. 
Such is the financial triumph of the Out Still.* No wonder the 
Commissioner of Revenue could exclaim in his report, for the 
joy of the government in London : " The expansion of revenue 
under this system has been marvellous." 

Now, it is but just to the government to say that it claims for 
its defence that there is no real increase in intemperance and 
the general consumption of intoxicants ; that increased revenue 
is from an increased duty ; that there has been increased vigi- 
lance on the part of the revenue officers ; and that there is, un- 
der the Out Still system, less chance for fraud. But the testi- 
mony of tea-planters in Assam, of publicists, and of wise and 
observant missionaries long resident in India, is to the effect 
that the doubling of the revenue on liquor in ten }^ears betokens 
increased consumption and drunkenness. The great increase in 
the report of consumption, in the number of stills, and in the 
revenue, cannot be accounted for on the government line of de- 
fence. The government never adopted the original plan of the 
Government Still, or the new Out Still to take its place, in order 
to lessen intemperance, but simply to increase its revenue. It 
gained its end. Besides, the special Bengal Commission was 
appointed, in 1886, for the express purpose of investigating this 

* No. 166 of Government of India's Papers for 1887. Also, "Report of the 
Second Decennial Missionary Conference," Calcutta, 1883, pp. 433 ff. 



APR A 8HARAB—Y0UR HONOR'S FIRE-WATER. 525 

very subject. It did its work thoroughly, and reached the con- 
clusion of a vast increase in consumption. It declared that in 
Bengal, which is one fourth of all India, and contains a popula- 
tion of sixty-six millions, the quantity of liquor distilled and 
sold in 1874-75 was one and a half million gallons. The popu- 
lation at the utmost had increased eight or nine per cent., but 
the output and consumption of liquor increased one hundred 
and thirty-five per cent., and, in some districts, one hundred and 
eighty per cent.* Here we have the government against itself. 
This very subject was the theme of an important debate in 
the House of Commons in March, 1888, during which the enor- 
mity of the government share in promoting intemperance — 
though we by no means claim such to be its motive — came out 
in strong light. Mr. Caine, a member of the House of Commons, 
said : " The fact is, the Indian government are in the position of 
licensed victuallers, who hold a monopoly of the liquor traffic, 
and are responsible entirely for the amount of the liquor that 
is sold and for the methods by which it is sold. . . . According 
to the evidence laid before the Commission, the Out Stills are 
frequented by large numbers of people, young and old, who are 
found often in a high state of intoxication, singing ribald songs 
and creating all kinds of disorder — in fact, the condition of 
things you would expect to find if uncontrolled and unchecked 
public-houses should exist in this country — in the lowest slums 
of London. ... I contend that the whole tendency of the ex- 
cise system is to increase the consumption, and that I have 
proved it to the hilt by the very documents which the govern- 
ment of India, misled by some mendacious official, has put for- 
ward to prove the contrary. The government are driving this 
license trade as hard as they can. Collectors find it the easiest 
way to increase their contribution to the revenue, and for years 
they have been stimulating the consumption of liquor to the 
utmost. If the government continue their present policy of 
doubling the revenue every ten years, in thirty years India will 
be one of the most drunken and most degraded countries on the 
face of the earth." f 

* Ridley, " One Aspect of the Present Outcry against Foreign Missions," p. 9. 
t "India and the Excise Revenue." Report of the Debate in the House of 
Commons, March 13, 1888, pp. 3, 7. 



526 INBIKA. 

The most careful study of the Government Still system, con- 
trasted with the Out Still system, leads us to conclude that the 
government safeguards against smuggling and other methods 
of concealment were much stronger and more numerous in the 
former than in the latter. The owner of the Out Still is not 
the government, but the highest bidder. He has farmed the 
job, just as a man farms the rents of a landlord holding an 
estate, and it is his interest to get all the money out of it he 
can. When he attended the auction, and his highest bid was 
accepted, his motive was purely financial, and not for the pur- 
pose of lessening intemperance. This motive, it is very suppos- 
able, controls all his methods.* 

Is Intemperance in India Increasing? 

To this serious question we are compelled to answer affirma- 
tively. The proof is overwhelming that the temperate Hindus 
are gradually becoming a nation of drunkards. Eoadside grog- 
shops are multiplying. Crime is fostered by them, and "the 
roads near by are made unfit for respectable people and unsafe 
for passengers." f In one well-known district in Bengal — that 
of Monghyr — the government distillery used to turn out five 
hundred gallons a day. Now, under the new Out Still system, 
the average is fifteen hundred gallons a day, or three times 
the former amount. The increased production means increased 
drunkenness and increased crime. Private drinking is now in- 
dulged in by nearly nine tenths of the Bengalis instructed in 
the English colleges and schools. Keshub Chunder Sen says: 
" So long as the men are in the University we can hold them, be- 
cause they are not allowed to drink, but the moment they pass, 
away they go, and now the Sabbath day in Calcutta is simply a 
bacchanalian festivity for the educated Bengalis of the city. . . . 
Friends never meet nowadays without spirit being consumed. . . . 
Crime and immorality are also, in large measure, attributable 
to this cause. The instances of petty crimes and heinous offences 
committed under the influence of drink are of frequent occur- 
rence, as may be proved by the criminal records of the country. 



* The table in the Appendix (No. VI. ) presents a comparative view of the 
receipts in India from excise duty on spirits, 
t Pringle, " Extracts," etc., p. 3. 



APKA SHARAB—YOUR HONOR'S FIRE-WATER. 52? 

... It is, indeed, harrowing and painful to contemplate the extent 
to which sensuality, profligacy, and brutal revels on the one hand, 
and irreligion, blasphemy, and practical atheism on the other, 
are making ravages among all classes of the native community 
in consequence of the spread of drunkenness, and undermining 
the religious and moral life of the nation. ... In short, the 
use of intoxicating liquor has done more than anything else to 
degrade the physical, moral, and social condition of my coun- 
trymen, and has proved a stupendous obstacle in the path of 
reformation." An English medical officer says : " The quantity 
of intoxicating liquor drank on holidays is incredible. In the 
course of practice I have met patients who have astonished me 
by describing their powers of drinking. One, a Mohammedan 
moonshee, asserted that he had finished a bottle of brandy and 
three bottles of beer at an evening sitting ; another, a Kayasth 
a Yakil, that he had swallowed a bottle of brandy almost at a 
draught." The Rev. Frank Warne visited one of the out stills 
established by the English government, and says that " natives 
were lying all about, so drunk that they could not be aroused. 
The keeper of the out still, being rebuked for the sin of engag- 
ing in such business, coolly responded, ' The Christian English 
government commands us to do it, and takes rent for it; when 
the government says stop, we will stop.' " 

The way in which the ever-increasing temptations to drink 
are breaking down all old religious restraints of the Hindus and 
Mohammedans is easily seen. The education in the schools has 
loosened the bands, and now come the vices of the civilized West. 
Native doctors say that delirium tremens is a common disease 
among their patients. Drunkenness is almost the invariable re- 
sult of a native dinner-party. Indeed, liquor is being introduced 
into the zenana, and women are acquiring the passion. The 
Mohammedans are yielding, in spite of the Quran. Scarcely a 
social meal takes place among the better class without European 
wines being used.* All barriers are falling down before the 
enlarging facilities for drinking. The rush is towards the still. 
When there was no tax on the palm furnishing the juice which 
served as a simple beer for the natives, the natives contented 
themselves with that. But now the government taxes every 

* Gregson, " The Drink Traffic in India," p. 11. 



528 INBIKA. 

tree which produces the juice. The people, having gotten the 
taste of the strong drink, now prefer it. It is quite convenient 
to reach the roadside groggery, and the liquor is furnished so 
cheaply that it requires but a small sum of money to drink at 
will. Nothing can give one a clearer idea of the illusions of 
intoxicating liquors than the way they blind one to his religious 
vows. The Shastras of the Nepali castes — the Bahun, the Khas, 
and the Thakuri — prohibit drinking, but these very people now 
indulge freely. " Their caste rules could restrain them from 
making intoxicants in their own houses, or from going to the 
other castes to procure them ; but they have not sufficed to save 
them from the seductions of the government liquor-shops, whose 
keepers are only too willing to connive at secrecy, though even 
secrecy is now but little practised. Such cases generally com- 
mence with brandy obtained on the sly, or ' as medicine,' in the 
imported spirit-shops, and finish with ' country spirits,' taken in 
open and shameless defiance of religion and morality from the 
out-still shops." * The Rev. A. Turnbull, a missionary in Dar- 
jeeling, addressed a postal-card to the proprietors of the one 
hundred and ninety-nine tea plantations of the district, and in- 
quired whether or not they considered the excise shops estab- 
lished by the government along every public road and in every 
private and public bazar a public evil, injurious to the local tea 
industry and to the material and moral interest of the tens of 
thousands of tea kulis. One hundred and forty -four replies were 
returned, and all except three were positive in their declaration 
of the curse of intemperance to the tea industry. One manager 
says ten per cent, of his laborers get drunk. The Brahmans of 
Darjeeling are breaking all caste by selling liquor in the bazar. 
Mr. 1ST. L. Roy says : " The liquor traffic has corrupted the mor- 
als so that the laws of religion and the binding customs of soci- 
ety are being totally disregarded for the sake of strong drink. 
Why is it so ? Because the temptations to drink are great — the 
facilities and opportunities for drinking are ample and daily in- 
creasing. And how should it be otherwise, since government 
is at the head of the drinking traffic? It defies competition 
with any other trade. I have been now eighteen years in 
Darjeeling. "When I first came there was, to my knowledge, 



* "The Traffic in Strong Drink" (Darjeeling), pp. 5, 6. 



APKA SHARAB—YOUR HONOR'S FIRE-WATER. 529 

only one grog - shop ; now there are nine such shops in one 
bazar." 

Poresh Earn Patni, of Dinajpur, an honored native, thus 
describes the extreme present cheapness of liquor, and attrib- 
utes the growing intemperance in large measure to that cause: 
" I remember the time when the out stills were first in use, many 
years ago. After that we had the Sudder Distillery system, and 
the shopkeepers were not allowed to distil liquor in their own 
houses. At that time it was only possible to buy liquor at a 
rupee a bottle. If you wanted half a bottle the man would 
charge you eight annas, and four annas for quarter of a bottle, 
and so on. Now that the out stills have been established, you 
can buy four kinds of liquor — the cheapest at two annas, the next 
at four annas, then at eight annas, and the last at one rupee 
a bottle. The lipuor we can now buy for one rupee is much 
stronger than that we could buy for the same price in former 
years. The bottle now sold for eight annas is equal to that we 
could buy for one rupee before." 

Mr. J. H. Newberry, Collector of Kangpur, declares that the 
natives, when they drink at all, drink to excess : " Laziness, pov- 
erty, crime, and disease are the usual moral effects of excessive 
drinking. Natives of this country who drink any intoxicating 
liquor at all never seem able to restrain themselves to healthy 
and moderate drinking. They all drink to excess." 

All these testimonies relate to the tea districts of India. The 
increase is equally great elsewhere, and equally destructive of 
the local industries. The Bengal excise commissioner makes the 
following important declaration : " There has been, undoubt- 
edly, a very great increase of late years in the number of spirit- 
drinkers among the wage-earning classes, including those who 
cultivate land on their own account in addition to working for 
hire. This has been most marked in the Behar spirit-drinking 
tract, in the cities of Bengal, and in the centres of the jute-press- 
ing, cotton and jute spinning, and coal-mining industries. 

" The city of Monghyr rivals Patna in drunkenness, and the 
evidence taken at Jamalpur, even after the necessary deductions 
have been made for exaggerations and inaccuracy, proves that 
there has been a great increase of drinking among the work- 
men of that place." Mr. French, the manager of the Churaman 
Ward's estate in Dinapur, a man who has had fifty-two years' 
34 



530 INDIKA. 

experience of the country, gives this evidence : " After forcibly 
describing the increase in drinking observed by him, he stated 
his belief that it is entirely due to the increased facilities with 
which liquor can be obtained at his very door. A deputation of 
the East Bengal Landowners' Association, who met the president 
of the commission at Dacca, stated to him that, in their opinion, 
the increase of drinking among the lower classes is in a great 
measure due to the shops being situated in markets and such- 
like places, and there can be no doubt that the selection of im- 
proper sites for shops has had much to do in most districts with 
the increase of drinking and drunkenness." 

As to the quality of the liquor now served to the people of 
India by the government, there is but one opinion. It is a mis- 
erable decoction, adulterated and diluted, and can be sold at a 
profit for two cents a bottle ! The natives can go to the grog- 
shop, and, poor as they are, are known to barter their smaller 
articles, such as shawls and umbrellas, for liquor. The liquor is 
anything but attractive in odor to the average European in In- 
dia, and it now passes under the name of " Billy Stink." But, 
the passion for it being formed, the ill odor has no power to 
repel. It is a terrible arraignment which the Archdeacon of 
Bombay makes when he says of the English in India : " For ev- 
ery Christian we have made in India we have made one hundred 
drunkards." 

Movements to Arrest Intemperance. 

It cannot be supposed that such a great increase in intemper- 
ance could take place and move steadily forward without excit- 
ing profound attention, not only among the Christians of India, 
led by the strong missionary force, but by the English at home. 
The protest has gone from India to England, and now a senti- 
ment is rapidly forming in the latter country which is giving 
great hope to all the churches represented in India. The debate 
in the House of Commons on March 13, 1888, was remarkable in 
every respect. Mr. Caine took up the cause of temperance in 
India, and proved that even the statistics had been manufactured, 
especially in the cases of Ahmadabad, the Island of Bombay, and 
Cawnpore. The debate was participated in by Lord Randolph 
Churchill, Sir G. Campbell, Sir J. E. Gorst, Mr. S. Smith, Sir 
"Richard Temple, Mr. Boyce, and Sir J. Ferguson. Defence of 



APR A SHARAB—YOUR HONORS FIRE-WATER. 531 

the present system was made by some of the speakers. But the 
great array of facts presented by Mr. Caine was such that no 
amount of apology could mitigate the fact itself that the gov- 
ernment, without intending to increase the traffic and intemper- 
ance, is nevertheless the real author of the astounding growth 
of the passion for intoxicating drinks and its consequent crimes. 

In Darjeeling, where the tea plantations are a most important 
industry, there has been formed the Darjeeling Temperance So- 
ciety, which is supported by prominent civilians, missionaries, 
and educated natives. It has issued a pamphlet giving an account 
of an anniversary held in June, 1888, and containing addresses 
by influential speakers and a large correspondence from tea 
planters, testifying to the increase of intemperance and to the 
responsibility of the government for it. An influential native 
writer, Dinshaw Edulji "Wacha, has published a large pamphlet, 
showing the injurious effect of the present policy of the govern- 
ment in preventing crime from intemperance.* The British Sol- 
diers' Association is an important organization in India, which 
has resulted in the signing of the pledge of total abstinence by 
ten thousand soldiers in the Indian army. Perhaps of all the 
organizations now operating for lessening the crime of intem- 
perance in India, the Native Races and Liquor Traffic United 
Committee, of London, is the most important. It publishes val- 
uable documents, sees that the public is well informed, and is 
using all proper methods to influence English opinion in favor 
of temperance in India. 

The missionaries in India are alert in this important work. 
There seems to be no dissenting voice that the crime of intem- 
perance is rapidly on the increase. All the churches are inter- 
esting themselves. When union conventions are held, the dis- 
cussion of the subject forms an important part of the programme. 

One of the most hopeful of all the signs is, that the natives 
themselves are arousing, with great energy, against the growth 
of intemperance. Gyan Chandra Basak, a prominent Bengali 
of Calcutta, has become a pioneer in the production of a native 
temperance literature by preparing, in Bengali, an excellent 
hand-book of temperance. So far it is the only vernacular work 
on the subject. It abounds in strong points, and makes the sta- 

* "Indian Abkan Administration" (Bombay, 1888). 



532 INDIKA. 

tistics of drink do their full work. He is a member of the Cal- 
cutta Band of Hope, which already has a membership of one 
thousand. It is safe to say that, if the natives had the power of 
local self-government, they would break up every still in the coun- 
try. Their religion, with all its traditions, is against the drinking 
of intoxicants. Some of the native princes are unwilling to give 
any endorsement to any system for collecting excise from the 
sale of liquors. The Prince of Mysore has not yet allowed the 
Out Still to be auctioned off in his dominions. The late Kajah 
of Travancore, a highly intelligent man, said he " could not un- 
derstand the English people. They held a great many meet- 
ings, and had a very strong political agitation against the opium 
traffic ; if it was wrong to get money out of it in India, it must 
be equally wrong to get revenue out of intoxicating liquor in 
India. Why is it not just as criminal to degrade Hindus as it is 
to degrade John Chinaman? Why is it not just as wrong to 
send brandy and whiskey to Calcutta as to send opium to Shang- 
hai or Hong Kong ?" * 

There is in Bombay a native Temperance League, whose spec- 
ial object is to arrest the growth of drunkenness among the 
Marhattas in Bombay and Western India in general. A native 
gentleman of Bombay, who seems to be connected with no so- 
ciety, is laboring as an individual in the interests of temperance 
in the Colaba district of that great city. Mr. Gregson, wishing 
to find out his motive for his crusade, inquired : 

" Is it against the government ?" 

" No," was the reply. 

" Do you threaten the people with violence ?" 

" No." 

" Do you obstruct them in going to the shops ?" 

" No ; my only reason is that I do not want the vice of drunk- 
enness to spread among my countrymen," was his grand reply. 

The native Indian writer is a master in the art of arranging 
English authorities and example in England against English 
example in India. An illustration of this keenness of criticism 
may be seen in the manner by which a native author, Wacha, 
introduces a fact in English history, supported by no less an au- 
thor than Lecky, in his " History of England in the Eighteenth 

* Quoted from Gregson, " Drinking and the Drink Traffic in India," p. 10. 



APEA SHABAB—YOUB HONOB'S FIBE-WATEB. 533 

Century," in condemnation of the present wholesale reaping of 
financial profit by England in India from the revenue from intox- 
icating liquors, and in proof of the groundlessness of the govern- 
ment's plea that restriction of the liquor traffic is a real barrier 
against increased intemperance. Lecky says : " By the year 1736, 
so frightful was the drunkenness, that even the sluggish parlia- 
ment under Walpole was moved to strong measures ; a duty of 
20s. a gallon was imposed on all spirituous liquors, and a license 
of £50 a year was required for selling them in less quantities 
than two gallons. But these measures, which would have well- 
nigh extirpated gin-drinking could they have been enforced, 
were overstrained. The consumption of spirits, indeed, sank 
from 5,394,000 gallons in 1735, to about 3,000,000 in 173T ; but 
at the cost of violent riots, and soon a clandestine retail trade 
arose, very lucrative and very popular, till in 1742 no less than 
7,000,000 gallons were distilled. Then the law swung from one 
extreme to the other, and in 1743 the duty of 20s. was reduced 
to a penny, the license of £50 was reduced to 20s., but neither 
drunkenness nor even clandestine selling yielded to this new 
mode of treatment. ... At last, in 1751, wise and practicable 
measures avoided the excess of the law of 1736 and the defect 
of the law of 1743. . . . These laws were not beyond the capac- 
ity of the nation, -and although not extirpating the chronic evil 
of spirit drinking and drunkenness, allayed the acute malady of 
the previous thirty years, and caused a notable diminution in 
the consumption of spirits, in drunkenness, and in disease." 

The Results. 

The effects of intemperance are the same the world over. 
Crime and poverty fatten on the vice, but there is a difference 
in countries. The evils of intemperance magnify in the ratio 
of the unevangelized state of the people who are cursed by it. 
The self-restraint possessed even by people living in a Christian 
land, and yet themselves not practical Christians, is one of the 
most patent of the indirect effects of the Christian religion. 
The atmosphere of Christian life has its effect on all who breathe 
it. But in such a great conglomeration of races as India pre- 
sents, where the number of Christians is very small compared 
with the entire population, the general effect of the eas3 r access 
to intoxicating liquors by every kuli in the land must be ter- 



534 INDIRA. 

rible. The missionaries are united in their testimony of the in- 
vasion of their hard-won little Christian folds by the growing 
vice. The Rev. H. Onasch, of Ranchi, in the district of Lo- 
hardugga, for example, makes the following report of the dan- 
ger to his work among the aboriginal people of Chota Nagpur : 

" Having been now for more than seven years here, and hav- 
ing plenty of opportunity to see the natives in their villages, I 
with a sorrowful mind state that drunkenness among Chris- 
tians, Hindus of all classes, and Mussulmans is increasing rap- 
idly. 

" Referring to the native Christians of my own Church here 
I will prove my assertion from the annual statistics since 1880 
which I still have with me, viz. : 

" In 1880, among 29,000 Christians : habitual drunkards, 41 
moderate drunkards, 160. 

" In 1881, among 30,000 Christians : habitual drunkards, 79 
moderate drunkards, 163. 

"In 1882, among 30,000 Christians: habitual drunkards, 61 
moderate drunkards, 356. 

" In 1883, among 30,000 Christians : habitual drunkards, 250 
moderate drunkards, 274. 

" Though we missionaries have done our best to check the 
evil, and though we have been successful in many cases, yet we 
have not been able to obtain a satisfactory result. Now if peo- 
ple under the Word of God and under Church discipline show 
an increase of drunkenness, how much more will this be the 
case with those who are under no obligation whatever ; and it 
is, indeed, deplorable to observe how drunkenness affects the 
non-Christian Kols both in their moral and material condition. 
They are daily to be found in large numbers drunk in their 
houses, in the public places of their villages, such as the weekly 
village or town bazars, near government distilleries, and on the 
roads. A few instances will confirm what I say. In February 
last I came along the road from Kalamati to Ranchi. At the 
government distillery, at Topadana, a large number of Hindus 
and non-Christian Kols were sitting near the distillery, and nearly 
all of them in a more or less drunken state. The Chaukidar 
from Hatya was among them, and, on seeing me, came up to my 
cart and tried to stop me from going. I reached Doranda be- 
fore sunset. Passing through the government distillery, I ob- 






APKA SHARAB—YOUR HONOR'S FIRE-WATER. 535 

served a large number of men, women, and children, sitting and 
drinking liquor. I stopped and looked at them, and found most 
of the men drunk and quarrelling, and thirteen women in a state 
of intoxication." 

There is, however, not a mission field in India to-day which 
is not endangered by the growing intemperance. The Syrian 
Christians are cursed with the vice. The Eoman Catholics are 
indulging in the same way, " even children learning early to 
drink, going with their parents, and getting a little from them." * 

The Hill tribes, which are the descendants of the races con- 
quered by the Aryans, and have ever remained more impervious 
to foreign influences because of their gross life and dense igno- 
rance, are particularly affected by habits of intemperance. The 
liquors which they drink, and are growing fonder of all the 
while, kill with astonishing rapidity. The indigenous races 
have neither self-respect nor the power of self-discipline. They 
drink until they are drunk. The wayside shop, with the sign- 
board, " Wines and Spirits Sold Here," means certain death to 
them. 

An army surgeon, of twenty years' intimate knowledge of 
India, in a paper read before the Colonial Temperance Congress 
in 1886, wrote thus : " Twenty years' personal observation in 
the Northwest Provinces has demonstrated to me the appalling 
fact that the entire race of hereditary owners of the soil have 
all been swept off by drink. Brandy or government rum is 
what these poor creatures take to when the taste has been 
lighted up ; and it is certainly a subject for thoughtful consid- 
eration that, while we in this country are rejoicing at the re- 
duction of the excise revenue in Great Britain, what are we to 
say of the gradually increasing liquor revenue in India." f 

"What wonder % A penny's worth is all that is needed to in- 
toxicate, madden, and wreck. Even if a poor native has no 
money, he can manage to get liquor. He can get it on credit, 
and mortgage his few possessions, if so be he can quaff the in- 

* Mateer, " Native Life in Travancore," p. 284. This author furnishes some 
sad proofs of the invasion of the Travancore congregations by intemperance, 
and also some beautiful illustrations of the rescue of natives from the habit by 
becoming Christians. See pp. 284, 285. 

t Ridley, " One Aspect of the Present Outcry against Foreign Missions," 
p. 8. 



536 



IJDIKA. 



toxicating cup ?* Then the back door — that invention of the 
saloon-keeper in Great Britain and the United States — is made 
to do its full work, if the proprieties prevent ingress by the 
front door. 

Now, dark as this picture is, which we have unwillingly been 
compelled to draw, there is no real ground for discouragement. 
The gospel has never been carried to a country without at the 
same time, if not earlier, the transportation of the vices of the 
land which sends the truth. Already the missionaries are 
awake to the danger. The English people are becoming aroused 
to it. The real rulers of India did not hold council in Calcutta, 
or enact laws in the Westminster House of Parliament, but are 
the broad commonalty of the British Isles — or, rather, are the 
whole Anglo-Saxon race. The Indian conquest will be com- 
plete alike over the evils of false faiths and the vices which still 
grow, as tares among the wheat, in Christian lands. 

* Gregson, " The Drink Traffic in India," pp. 45, 48. 




BLACK TOWN, CALCUTTA. 



CHAPTER LVIII. 

FAMINES OF INDIA. 

One of the most appalling of all the evils from which Inclia 
has suffered has been its famines. There are no adequate data 
for calculating the poverty and loss of life which have come 
from this one scourge. When the people of a district suffered 




A HARD SWIM FOR IT. 



the loss of their crops because of want of rain, they regarded 
the visitation as a direct mark of providential displeasure. Their 
gods were angry, and what could be done ? Here is a picture 
of the famine of 1770. " All through the hot season," says 



538 INDIRA. 

Hunter, " the people went a-dying. The husbandmen sold their 
cattle ; they sold their implements of agriculture ; they devoured 
their seed grain ; they sold their sons and daughters, till at length 
no buyer of children could be found ; they ate the leaves of the 
trees and the grass of the fields, and in June it was reported 
that the living were feeding on the dead. Two years after the 
dearth, Warren Hastings made a progress through Bengal, and 
he states the loss to have been at least one third of the inhab- 
itants, or probably about ten millions of people. Nineteen years 
later Lord Cornwallis reported that one third of Bengal was a 
jungle inhabited only by wild beasts."* It was of this same 
famine that Lord Teignmouth wrote : 

" Still fresh in memory's eye the scene I view, 
The shrivelled limbs, sunk eyes, and lifeless hue ; 
Still hear the mothers' shrieks and infants' moans, 
Cries of despair and agonizing groans, 
In wild confusion dead and dying lie. 
Hark to the jackal's yell and vulture's cry, 
The dog's fell howl, as midst the glare of day, 
They unmolested on their victims prey! 
Dire scenes of horror, which no pen can trace, 
Nor rolling years from memory's page efface." 

It is estimated that in the famine of 1770 not less than ten 
millions of people perished. The greatest famines which have 
desolated India have occurred in the years 942, 1631, 1770, 1837, 
1866, 1876-78. In the last great famine (1876-78) no less than 
sixteen millions of people were sufferers, by either death, disease, 
or insufficient food.f Gradually the government is getting con- 
trol over the famines. It spares .no labor or expense to bring 
relief. By means of the railways it furnishes quick transporta- 
tion of provisions to the suffering people. In a single decade 
— 1873 to 1883 — the government expended seventeen million 
five hundred thousand pounds sterling on famine relief alone. 
The Eev. George Bowen says, truly : " Famine, this deadliest 
of Indian plagues, has now become all but impossible in con- 
sequence of the facilities afforded by the improved communica- 
tions of the country." 



* " England's Work in India," pp. 22, 23. 

t Digby, "The Famine Campaign in Southern India," 1876-78, vol. i.p. 



FAMINES 

IN 

ODIA 




Greenwich 85 



FAMINES OF INDIA. 



539 



Formerly, help was borne to a famine-stricken or pestilential 
district by slow and primitive means of transportation. The 
relief was scanty at the best, and many thousands died without 
help from any quarter. But now all parts of the land are brought 
into close relationship. England found India carrying its treas- 
ures of produce in a bullock cart, but now she stretches out her 
railways and canals, which, as arteries, sustain the life of the 
many millions. 




INUNDATION OF THE INDUS. 



CHAPTEK LIX. 

THE INDIAN INDUSTRIES. 

One of the most interesting departments of the study of India 
lies in connection with her industries. Through the tour of the 
Prince of Wales in India, Europe has become acquainted with 
many of the industries of the country to which it was formerly 
a comparative stranger. Many gifts were presented to him, and 




WOOD-CARVERS AT WORK. 



some of them were of such exquisite workmanship and rare 
value that they excited the admiration of all who have seen 
them. On his return he gave permission that they be exhibited 
in various parts of the British Isles, and in every instance they 



THE INDIAN INDUSTRIES. 



541 



awakened profound admiration. In addition to the interest ex- 
cited by these gifts, the attention paid to India by the managers 
of the South Kensington Museum, where there is a large collec- 
tion of objects illustrating the arts and industries of India, has 
contributed largely towards our acquaintance with both the an- 
cient and modern life and employments of the people. 



mm®l^mm- 




ANCIENT SPECIMEN OF WOOD-CAKVESTG. 



The traveller in India is amazed at the special industries pecul- 
iar to each locality.* Wood-carving is done in many places. Xot 
only is the rich native's furniture often a triumph of the carver's 
art, but the very house itself, especially the facade, dating from the 
Mogul period, exhibits rare skill and taste. "Wages are always low. 

* Birdwood, "Industrial Arts of India," vol. i. p. 137. This, with "Watson, 
"The Textile Manufactures and the Costumes, of the People of India," Lon- 
don, 1867, ■will supply all necessary special information on the industrial life 
of the people of India. 



542 INDIKA. 

For example, the skilled wood-carver receives at most six or seven 
cents a day. In most of the Hindu arts each city has its special- 
ty. One kind of brass work is manufactured at Benares, and an 
entirely different kind at Moradabad. Cavvnpore has long been 
illustrious for its leather - ware. The rich pottery of Jaipur is 
known throughout the length of India, and is now easily distin- 
guishable in Piccadilly and Regent Street. Each place has an 
industry peculiar to it, which we must believe has come down 
from distant times. I have often been impressed, on looking at 
some striking ware, to observe the readiness with which a Euro- 
pean resident in India would say where it had been made. The 
various fabrics worn by ladies are seldom produced in one large 
place, but are derived from many, and often very distant from 
each other. Each town has acquired its celebrity for its special 
w T are, and every interest prompts to continue it. 

Dacca, for example, has been celebrated for its muslins for 
twenty centuries. They were brought from India to ancient 
Rome, and were worn by the wealthy Roman ladies, as they 
walked along the Forum or lingered in the balconies overlooking 
the Tiber, while the Ca?sars were yet ruling the great empire.* 
These fine, soft muslins are still made by the slow and simple 
contrivances managed by the hands and feet of the Indian 
artisan. They are sent abroad, and reach the markets of what 
was only savage Germania and Britannia in. the days of Tacitus. 

Alexandria was founded by Alexander for the special purpose of 
being an entrepot for Oriental trade. De Lesseps, by his construc- 
tion of the Suez Canal, has carried out to practical fulfilment the 
very idea which Alexander the Great had when he built at the east- 
ern end of the Mediterranean the city which to this day is his best 
claim to immortality. Long before the beginning of the Christian 
era there cannot be a question that Indian products found a 
market in that multiform city. Abu Fazl says that, in his day, 
the arts and sciences of India were three hundred in number. 

Among the more prominent industries the weaving of rugs 
and shawls may be mentioned. The contrivance is very rude 
and primitive, but the products are exceedingly rich. The pat- 
terns are as intricate as they are beautiful, and some of them 
are of great antiquity. There is little doubt that rugs woven 
to-day in the valley of the Ganges, and shawls woven in Kash- 

* Ker, " The Land of Ind," pp. 222, 223. 



THE INDIAN IND USTRIES. 



543 



mir, are reproductions of patterns already old before the Aryans 
poured down in dense masses from their home in the table-lands 
of northwestern Asia. Many of the jails of India are centres 
for the weaving of fine rugs. The convicts are, in this way, 




GOLD-BROCADE WEAVERS. 



made serviceable to the state. There is great demand for the 
rugs woven in the jails. In Agra I saw a long row of " lifers," 
or prisoners for life, who were chained to each other by the feet, 
engaged in weaving a magnificent rug for Queen Victoria, and 



544 



INDIKA. 



another row weaving a rug for the ex-Empress Eugenie, the lat- 
ter probably as ar gift for an altar. I found that in both Agra 
and Ahmadabad there was a scanty supply of 
woven wares on hand. Dr. Tyler, the superin- 
tendent of the jail at Agra, told me that orders 
must be given months in advance, in order to 
secure a good rug. 

Paper is manufactured in different parts of In- 
dia. The Serampore paper is now the favorite 
for general printing. Perhaps the paper longest 
known in India is that made in the Himalaya 
Mountains, from the inner bark of the Daphne 
Cannabria. The weaving of cotton goods has 
been carried on from remote times, for even the 
Rig-Yeda speaks of the " weavers' threads." 

The Portuguese found sealing-wax in use during 
the early part of their residence in the country, 
or in the year 1563. The silk industry was prob- 
ably imported from China, but it has been long in 
existence in India. However, the people of India 
much prefer the weaving of wool to that of silk. 
Lacquer work was observed by Dampier in the 
17th century, and was described in his account 
of his Indian journey. Calico-printing was prac- 
tised by the ancient Hindus. Encaustic tiles, 
enamels, pottery, bleaching, printing in gold, bro- 
cades, engraving, gold wire, stuccoing, mosaic in 
fine jewelry, and the making of glass, first colored 
and then colorless, were known to the people of 
India from remote times. The leather work of 
\Wm Kashmir and Cutch descend from ancient days. 

Gold thread is still spun and twisted in Trevan- 
clrum. The use of alloys, in the treatment of 
the precious metals, is ancient, and is still prac- 
tised with marvellous skill. One has only to 
linger awhile in the native bazar of Lucknow 
to see how successful has been the transmission 
of this ancient industry. The ancient Hindu knew 
well the proper combination of carbon with iron for the 
production of perfect steel. No blade of steel has ever 



THE INDIAN INDUSTRIES. 



545 



surpassed that made in the humble forge of the ancient 
Hindu. 

The tendency in these later days is towards the introduction 
of improved industrial ma- 
chinery, and the doing away 
with the slow and laborious 
methods in use from time 
immemorial. In Travan- 
core the most of the thread 
used in the country for 
indigenous looms is the 
coarser English cotton- 
twist. The native dealers 
procure it, and it is fur- 
nished cheaper than a sim- 
ilar quality can be supplied 
at home, and is more easily 
and evenly woven.* It is 
admitted free of duty. All 
the weaving in Travancore 
is done on private looms. 
There is now no special tax 
on looms, and hence the 
census takes no note of the 
whole number of looms. 
But the census reports of 
sixty years ago in Travan- 
core alone gave the whole 
number of these household 
looms as four thousand one 
hundred and seventy, and 
the number of workers on 
them as eight thousand six 
hundred and eighty-seven. 
In former times the silks of 
Europe were made in the 
humble homes, while the little cottages along the shore of Lake 
Zurich produced the first silks introduced by the emigrants from 




NECKLACE, PANJAB. 



35 



* Mateer, "Native Life in Travancore," ch. xxii. 



546 INDIRA. 

Lombardy. But the simple looms, in Europe as in India, are 
constantly giving way to the combined work in the factory. 

Where cotton cloth is introduced into Travancore from Eng- 
land, however, the cost is about one fourth more than the retail 
price in England. It must be admitted that while the tendency 
everywhere in India is towards the introduction of improved 
machinery, the disposition is everywhere growing to make use 
of European fabrics. One has only to see the large supplies of 
European goods in all the large towns, and the large number of 
the better classes clothed in European clothing, to be convinced of 
the fact that it is only a question of a little more time and money 
before the population of India will be clad in European dress.* 

The most recent tables — twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth — of 
the Indian Statistical Abstract, contain the following description 
of the area actually under cultivation, the area at present uncul- 
tivated which might be cultivated, and the proportions of the' 
different crops. The total acreage of India, according to the 
Survey Department, is 480,667,094 acres. Deduct 116,615,483 
acres, the area of the feudatory and tributary states, and of other 
districts for which agricultural returns are not obtainable, and 
with which the figures do not deal, and we get 364,051,611 acres 
as the area of British India for agricultural purposes. Of this 
less than half, or 152,834,640 acres, is actually under cultivation, 
including 22,725,391 acres of current fallows. Of this 166,492,- 
458 acres which is uncultivated, rather more than half is fit for 
cultivation, and the remainder is not available for that purpose, 
so that an area of 80,000,000 acres in British India still awaits 
the husbandman. The area under forests, which is not included 
under either cultivatable or uncultivatable land, is 40,185,729 
acres. The distribution of crops is as follows : rice, 23,114,662 ; 
wheat, 19,883,040 ; other food grains, including pulse, 71,439,218 ; 
tea, 226,412 (almost wholly in Assam); cotton, 9,852,654; oil 
seeds, 7,678,382 ; indigo, 1,034,889. It thus appears that there 
is practically unlimited scope, so far as area is concerned, for the 
increased cultivation in India of crops which are mainly intended 
for export, such as wheat, cotton, indigo, tea, coffee, and other 
products. 

* See Appendix No. VII. for Official Census of the Trades and Occupations 
of the People of India, 



THE INDIAN INDUSTRIES. 



54? 



In Ceylon the acreage of crops is reported as follows : tea, 
150,000; coffee, 100,000; rice, 700,000; other grains, 150,000; 
cocoa-nuts, 450,000; other palms, 130,000; cinchona (quinine 
tree), 35,000 ; cacao, 13,000 ; cinnamon, 35,000 ; fruits and gar- 
den produce, 300,000. This acreage comprises but one fourth 
of the total area of Ceylon. Three fourths of the island are 
still jungles for wild elephants and other beasts ; mountain 
ranges which have never yet produced a crop ; and dark haunts 
for human beings who are as degraded and primitive as the 
cave-dwellers of Chihuahua.* 

* Bishop C. H. Fowler, Correspondence of Christian Advocate (N. Y.), 
April 11, 1889. 




THE SUPERB BIRD-OF-PARADISE. 



CHAPTER LX. 

POVERTY OF INDIA. 

One of the first impressions made upon the traveller in India 
is the extreme poverty of the people. The people abound. In 
walking through the streets of the larger towns, the multitudes 
prevail. Go where one will, there are human beings. The aver- 
age population to the square mile is two hundred inhabitants. 
In one district (Burdwan) there are six hundred people to the 
square mile. The people are poorly clad. A cotton -cloth 
around the loins is the entire costume of many millions. One 
cannot help halting and observing a little group of natives 
taking their meal. It is of the simplest quality, all vegetable 
or farinaceous. The question arises, How do the people exist 
on such simple and scanty fare ? Yet they do exist. Starva- 
tion takes place only in time of famine. The average annual 
income of each inhabitant in India is difficult to determine. 
One authority says it is seven dollars and a half. Bishop 
Thoburn, who has lived in the country thirty years, says that 
the average wages for a man and his family, is live cents a day, 
and under favorable conditions, two dollars a month. Rice is 
the chief meal of the laboring classes. Besides rice, the people 
eat cakes of coarse meal made of millet. The poor never eat 
meat, or bread made of wheat. It is safe to say that ten millions 
of the people of India never sleep under any other covering than 
the open sky. 

Compared, with that of other nations, it would seem that the 
low rate of wage-earning is beneath the power of endurance. 
In England the average income per inhabitant is one hundred 
and seventy -five dollars ; in Trance, one hundred and thirty dol- 
lars ; in Austria, eighty dollars ; in Spain, sixty dollars, and in 
Russia, forty-five dollars. 

That many of the people of India are underfed is universally 
admitted. Sir William Hunter says that forty millions go 



COMPARATIVE TABLE OF CROPS IN INDIA. 
DIAGRAM A. 

Showing the Areas of Crops cultivated in the following Provinces. 




The areas of Crops in Madras, Bombay, Punjab, North West Provinces and 
Berar are given in full — The returns from Assam, Oudh, Central Provinces 
and British Burma are incomplete in details. 







N 


orth West Provinces 




Berar 


Oudh 


Cent! Prov? 


Brit. 




» 


o 


s a 


CO 
00 
CM 


















r^ 

? 

o 










Bur. 


fi- 






^ 


» 


S- ^ 


CO 


















*° 






-+ 




r- 






5- 


CO 


s£ 


-3,6 
3,375 

-3,31 


CM 
1 












CO 








1 








co" 

5 


* 


S 








o 


-)- 


' cnj ca ^ 


TO 




CM 
CM 
















C, 






S; 


t 




CO 


to 


c? 


4- 


CO 


B 


N cm" CM 1 u, 


5. 




CO 








OS 

CO 


C-) 


m 


tif 


■B 






CO 


1 


;-- 


» 


CM CO 

CM_ TJ. 


2- i 




1 

5 


1 


H c cm 


t 




1 




CM 
CM 
1 


CO 




CO 


CM 

1 


CO 
CM 

1 


o 

CO 


CO 

CO 








1 


5 


T 


i 

-a 


co co 


CO 

Co" 

T 


CO 
CO 

1 


3- 
2- 








is 

03 to 

■ CD 




Co SP "- 
o =M I 

""" CO - 
1 °0 § 

1*1 


a. 
o 


CO 
CO 

1- 
1 


B 

3 


CM 

cm 

CO 


1 

■o 


=0 
CO 

of 

CO 

cm 


co" 

1 


cj 


•B 

S 

5. 


1 


1 

B 




CO 
CM 

CM 


s 


a. 




1 


s 

13 


Oilseeds — 
- 612,687 
specified — 


s 


"3 

a 


1- 






H:d: 


Bs 


0; 


cS 


■a 
c5 






I 




— 2. 


CM 

6 


1 

at 


3 




o 








1 

6 


1 

o 


a 











" 1 

^]CQ 




a 

6 



DIAGRAM B. 

ZZ] Cu.l.t.ii.raltl.p. \ I 



and ZTnculturable 



g g Showing Cultivated^. 

3<i areas L_ J indicates the portion for which returns are unavailable. 




^" o | Madras | Bombay | Punjab |N.W.Provs| Oudh 



Cent! Prov? 



Berar 



Assam 



Br. Burma 



.3 =3 
> o 

o o 



P4 SO 

■a 8 



p ^ 



o o 

fi CO 



*§§ 



s $ 



POVERTY OF INDIA. 551 

through life with too little food. This is probably a low esti- 
mate of the number. Sir Charles Elliot, Chief Commissioner of 
Assam, says : " I do not hesitate to say that half of our agri- 
cultural population never know from year's end to year's end 
what it is to have their hunger satisfied." 

Some of the causes of this extreme poverty of the millions of 
India are not difficult to discover. The history of the country, 
until the English became the rulers, has been one long warfare. 
The highest use of the citizen was estimated to be in the ratio 
of his capacity to bear arms. To build up the individual man ; 
to find employment for him; to see that he supported his family; 
and to secure his prosperity, as the highest function of the ruler, 
was never taken into the account. How many men could the 
leader kill in battle was the important question. The business 
of the average Hindu and Mohammedan was the use of deadly 
weapons. When great battle-fields, as Panipat more than once, 
were covered with many thousands of the slain, this was re- 
garded only as the price which had to be paid in order to go 
into the next war with greater advantage and brighter hope 
of victory. 

Much of the money belonging to the State was in the form 
of jewels or precious metals. These were stored in great sub- 
terranean vaults, as in Golconda, drawing no interest, and to be 
used only in organizing great schemes of new warfare. They 
were as useless as the surplus in the United States Treasury, 
and the ground of less political wrangle. The knowledge of the 
amount and place of concealment of these treasures was known 
to only the ruler, and a very few of his most trustworthy coun- 
sellors. When the ill fortunes of war brought out this stored 
wealth, the great amount of it surprised the conqueror. Clive 
must have been astounded at what his eyes saw, when he tri- 
umphed over the native kings. Nana Sahib's wealth was meas- 
ured only by the cart-loads. Only within a couple of years 
great stores of treasure have been discovered beneath the ground 
in the palace of Gwalior. The treasures of the Marhattas, the 
highway-robbers of the late Indian history, almost defy our pow- 
ers of credence. In addition to the countless wealth already 
brought to light, we can safely take for granted that the amount 
still concealed is immense. 

Sir Henry Maine finds the great cause of India's present pov- 



552 INDIKA. 

erty in these concealed treasures. He says : " The true secret of 
•the poverty of India, from which she is slowly recovering, I take 
to be the desolation caused by the war and brigandage of about 
two thousand several chiefs, while the Mogul dominion was dis- 
solving. I think India during the reign of Akbar and Jahan- 
gir was probably as rich as the Western World thought, but its 
carefully hoarded capital was destroyed in the same way as the 
accumulations of the Koman Empire." Sir Richard Temple con- 
firms this judgment. " The historical accounts of the plunder, 
realized after military or political catastrophes, may seem fabu- 
lous, but are nevertheless well founded, despite rhetorical exag- 
geration. There never has been a country where wealth was 
so much concentrated, or so little diffused, as the historic India. 
Hence the traditional ideas of Eastern wealth have indefinitely 
exceeded the reality. Besides these central accumulations of 
goods and property, there must have been much wealth col- 
lected in divers lesser places. No economist can study the 
story of the Marhatta conquests, wherein statecraft was chiefly 
devoted to the organization of plunder with unparalleled skill 
and audacity, without wondering how the country could have 
endured visitations so long protracted and so oft repeated. Here 
is proof, however, of the national habit of collecting, hoarding, 
and secreting property. Descriptions of accumulated wealth 
occur in the histories of the wars of the present generation ; for 
example, the verified accounts of prize at Haidarabad, in Sind, 
in 1842, at Delhi, Lucknow, Kirwi, and other places during the 
war of the mutinies. During many years past, even up to this 
very day, the dacoities, or gang-robberies, which occasionally 
break out, tell the same tale of wealth collected in rural as well 
as urban homes, to an amount which might not otherwise have 
been suspected." 

ISTow what do these hidden stores of precious stones and gold 
and silver prove ? That the governments of India regarded con- 
centrated capital as the real possession of the State, and not as 
properly the distributed possession of the individual subject. 
To acquire sufficient property, under the Mogul rule, to live in 
ease and comfort, without being in some way connected with 
the court, must have been next to impossible. The same may 
be said to apply to the Hindu courts existing before the Mogul 
rulers. War was the normal condition of the countries gov- 



POVERTY OF INDIA. 553 

erned. The wealth of the land was really poured into the gen- 
eral treasury. The Hindu subject was only a machine for 
money-getting in the scanty periods of peace and money-snatch- 
ing in the general time of war. 

Other causes are clear enough. Among these is the great 
amount of wealth bestowed on the construction of places of 
worship. Then, the mosques and temples once built, the service 
in them was supported by great endowments. Further, the rev- 
enue applied to the support of the rulers was immense. There 
seems to have been no limit. Each ruler was only one man in 
the midst of a great horde of military chiefs, nobles, courtiers, 
and counsellors. All these grew fat from the public treasury. 
Palaces abounded. No caprice of the ruler or his friends was 
left ungratified. The nation was fairly exhausted to satisfy 
every lust. Even death put no stop to the certain and steady 
current of the people's earnings into the vaults of the palace. 
Tombs in memory of the dead were built, some of them by en- 
forced labor, which were equalled only by the palaces of the 
living. No Roman emperor was ever honored with such tombs 
as were erected to some of the Mogul rulers. The Taj Mahal, 
erected to the memory of an empress, whether estimated by the 
wealth of its materials or the labor expended in rearing it, sur- 
passes by far any known tomb in memory of a Caesar. 

Now these causes of India's poverty are slowly passing away. 
The government is economically administered. The earnings 
of the people are not spent on the construction of places of false 
worship, or for the support of the service in them. The inter- 
ests of the native millions are steadily kept in view, and honesty 
characterizes every part of the management of the affairs of the 
empire. 

The greatest present cause of poverty is to be found in the 
need of a sufficient and proper cultivation of the soil. India 
possesses all the needful climates. Her soil is rich. Much of it 
is still virgin soil, despite the many millions of the people. Take 
the presidency of Madras as an example. The arable area in 
that one presidency is 72,858,000 acres ; but the portion which 
is actually cultivated is only 26,580,000. The rest is poramhoke, 
or uncultivated land. Of the land under cultivation only 
twenty per cent, is irrigated. " The unirrigated and dry land 
is eighty per cent. Of the latter, a very large part consists of 



554 INDIRA. 

the worst of soils. The tillage on these soils is also very poor. 
Our native plough stirs, but does not overturn the soil, and sel- 
dom penetrates to a greater depth than three inches. There is 
also no such thing as after-cultivation, or hoeing. As to our 
irrigated land while it is under crops, it receives very little at- 
tention beyond watering and weeding." * 

In addition to the small amount of cultivated land all over 
India, compared with land which could be cultivated, we must 
not forget that down to this day there is no science of agricul- 
ture throughout the country. There has really been no oppor- 
tunity to develop such a science. Long periods of peace, secu- 
rity of person and crops, and a ready market, are all great boons 
which India, with all her treasures, has not yet possessed. Even 
the English have not, as yet, had the opportunity to do this im- 
portant work. Their mission so far has been to acquire, solidify, 
and prepare for a great future this immense people. Even the 
elementary work of rotating crops has never been understood 
by the natives. The most which the India farmers understood, 
just here, is " the general principle that the soil should not be ex- 
hausted, but beyond allowing the land to be fallow, and raising 
during a portion of the year some vegetables from an insignifi- 
cant area, they know of no established and scientific sj'stem of 
rotating the crops." 

The attention of the government, and of the English people 
resident in India not connected with the government, but in 
sympathy with the development of all the material interests of 
the land, is now being devoted to the need of a larger area un- 
der cultivation, of a better understanding of agriculture as a 
science, and of better agricultural machinery and methods. 
Agricultural schools and colleges are springing up. In Madras 
the Saidapet College of Agriculture, and the Government Ex- 
perimental Farm connected with it, are good beginnings. An 
excellent agricultural journal is published by the students of the 
Saidapet College. Constant progress will be made in develop- 
ing, not only the productiveness of the soil and the enlargement 
of its area, but a taste for agriculture and a knowledge of its 

* K. Sundararaman, article on " The Poverty of India," in Christian College 
Magazine, Madras, October, 1887. We acknowledge with pleasure our obliga- 
tion to this paper, by a well-informed native writer, for important information 
on this interesting theme. 



POVERTY OF INDIA. 555 

laws. The government has given abundant proof that it has 
its eye on this great source of national prosperity, and will spare 
no needful outlay for the attainment of its object.* 

One of the means employed by the government to cultivate 
a taste for better agricultural methods among the natives is the 
agricultural exhibition. One recently held in Kathiawar, inau- 
gurated by Colonel Nutt, was very successful. It was the eighth 
time a similar exhibition had been held in the same place, but 
was of larger scope than any preceding one. English residents, 
native chiefs, and large numbers of the general population were 
in attendance. There were exhibits of horses, cattle, sheep, and 
other animals, besides fruits, grains, manufactures, and an impor- 
tant collection of articles made by women. Lectures on agri- 
cultural subjects were delivered at stated times on each of the 
three days that the exhibition lasted. A series of ploughing- 
matches concluded the exhibition. 

Much is to be done for the natives in correcting false ideas 
of wealth and many wrong social ways. For example, when a 
marriage ceremony takes place, the family of the bride will 
spend an amount of money out of all proportion to its means. 
The Nach girl or the musician must be paid for, an extravagant 
amount of silks and of other valuable cloths is bought, and 
many jewels are purchased. The father of, a bride contracts a 
large debt for a marriage ceremony. 

The passion for acquiring jewels, instead of available property, 
seems to continue. It is probably an inheritance from the ear- 
lier generations of the unsettled times. " I maintain," says Sun- 
dararaman, " that in every family in this country there is a dis- 
proportionate amount of the fortune of the family locked up in 
the form of jewels. There are families which can boast of 
50,000 rupees worth of jewels, and often this amount is exceeded. 
It is a very ordinary thing that over a third of the possessions 
of a family which has an estate of 10,000 or 15,000 rupees should 
be locked up in jewels. Even in the poorest families, there ex- 
ists this disproportion of jewels to possessions. When Messrs. 
Orr & Sons put forth their advertisements in the Hindu re- 
garding Hindu ornaments, they are said to have realized in the 
very first month a sale of over 20,000 rupees." 

* On the special pains taken by the government to improve the agriculture 
of India, see Encyclopaedia Britanniea (9th Edinb. ed.), vol. xii. p. 752. 



556 



INDIKA. 



The native of India has arrived at one great idea — that he 
can invest nowadays with comparative safety. There is no ra- 
pacious ruler to snatch away his earnings. He is beginning to 
lay up a little. Immense treasure, in small amounts, is now 
transmitted between natives by the post-office. Investments 
are constantly increasing. Many of the natives are taking 
shares, with the English, in the establishment of commercial 
enterprises. Some of the ancestral industries are reviving, and 
adapting themselves to the new mechanical contrivances for 
larger production. The increase of the foreign trade reveals a 
large development of native as well as foreign industry and 
enterprise. Thirty-three years ago the foreign trade of India 
amounted to only $250,000,000. Now it amounts to $700,000,000, 
the export trade of which amounts to $400,000,000. With the 
growth of agriculture, the enlargement of the earlier industries, 
the improvement of business habits, and the development of a 
commercial taste, the imports will be less needed. Why should 
India import cottons from Manchester, or cutlery from Sheffield, 
or pottery from Staffordshire? She was producing all these 
wares in great beauty and fineness when the Briton was dancing 
in savage glee around the rude circle of Stonehenge. She can 
do it again, though the Briton has gone to Westminster, and 
has produced Hampden, Shakespeare, Bacon, and Milton, and 
new civilizations beyond many seas. 




CARVLNG ON THE BUDDHIST TOWER AT SARNATH. 




: _J 



CHAPTEK LXI. 

BENARES THE HOLY CITY.-MORNING SCENE ALONG THE 

GANGES. 

" Are you going to Benares ?" and " Have you been to Be- 
nares ?" are questions one often hears during his tour in India. 
The Anglo-Indian never thinks you have seen the country well 
unless you have cast your shadow upon the holy Ganges at 
Benares. 

This city is the central sanctuary of all Hindu worship, the 
metropolis of Hindu trade, and the fountain-head of Hindu 
learning. In tender associations to the Hindu mind, no spot 
approaches it. To have been born in Benares is a life -long 
blessing, and to die on the bank of the Ganges is the highest 
aspiration alike of prince and peasant. If a Brahman in any 
part of India has seen the Monkey Temple, or the Golden Tem- 
ple, and laved in the Ganges at Benares, he is ever afterwards 
more highly esteemed by his townsmen, while it is a glad day 
in any rajah's palace, wherever he may live, when a new cask 
of water from the far-off sacred river is announced. 

The Origin or Benares. 

No one has determined the time of the origin of Benares. It 
was some time during the period when the Aryans held full sway 
in the country, and before any of the present faiths had been 
dreamed out. It first appears as a great Indian centre, but of 
the stages through which it passed we know nothing. It was 
over six centuries before our era, or 638 b.c, when Sakya Muni 
halted here, on his way from Gaya, and expounded his religion. 
Even then Benares was probably the home of a very busy popula- 
tion, or there would have been no attraction to that reformer to 
begin his work here. The great writers of the Hindus here wrote 
their works, and from this sacred centre sent them out on their 
mission to the Hindu world. JSTo success could be hoped for if 



560 INDIRA. 

their thoughts did not first find expression under the same sun 
which smiled upon Benares. 

The Brahmans do not like the name Benares, which Wilson, 
in his Sanskrit Dictionary, says has the meaning of " best water." 
They call their holy city Kasi, the Magnificent, for such it is in 
all their thoughts. A cheap little guide to the city in Hindu- 
stani, for sale by any little knot of Hindus, and written by a 
priest, gives in grave language the reason why Benares is the 
most sacred place in the world. 

" It is commonly thought by Christians, Mohammedans, and 
others who are unacquainted with the truth, that this holy city 
of Kasi rests upon a portion of the earth. But such an opinion 
is altogether erroneous, as it has been revealed to us by the gods, 
and as our senses are at times permitted to discover. The world 
itself, since the days of its creation, has remained supported 
upon the thousand heads of the serpent Ananta (eternity), and 
so it will continue to be upheld until the command of Brahma 
shall be proclaimed for it to be forever enveloped in the evils 
of that interminable deity. Now, when the judgment takes 
place, the city of Kasi, with a circumference of ten miles from 
its centre, will alone remain firm. For it rests upon the heads 
of Ananta, but is fixed upon the three points of the trident of 
Shiv, or Mahaclev, to whose care it will be intrusted. All who 
now die within its walls are blessed, and those who are found 
within it on that eventful clay shall be blessed a thousandfold. 
Ages before the Mohammedan conquest of this city by the Sul- 
tan Mohammed, which happened in the seventh century ; ages 
before it was made subservient to the Patans, which was a hun- 
dred centuries earlier ; ages before Kasi was the second capital 
of the Hindu kingdom of Kanauj, which was the case a hun- 
dred centuries before that ; ages before history has any record, 
Shiv built this wonderful city— of the purest gold, and all its 
temples of precious stones. But, alas ! the iniquity of man con- 
taminates and destroys the beauty of everything divine. In con- 
sequence of the heinous sins of the people, the precious materials 
of this sacred place were deteriorated, and eventually changed 
into stone, by permission of the founder Shiv. . . . Lately, the 
excesses and wickedness of the inhabitants are again increasing, 
and now the indignant Shiv is beginning to .display his anger by 
turning the stone edifices into huts of mud and thatch." 



BENARES THE HOLT CITY. 563 

This is the Brahman's conception of Benares. It is the city 
of his faith. Its vilest waters, its most malarious sinks, its de- 
caying weeds, are alike sweet and dear to him. 

I had ample time for my visit to this most remarkable place. 
Dr. Lazarus met me at the station, and entertained me at his 
beautiful home. His cultivated wife and daughters made my 
visit delightful as it passed, and charming as a memory. They 
took me to all the points of interest, introduced me to persons 
whom it was a pleasure to know and now to remember, and 
accompanied me to the station, when leaving for Allahabad. 

Mokning Scene Along the Ganges. 

No scene in Benares can equal the strange panorama presented 
by the bank of the Ganges in early morning. Our choti hazari 
was. finished betimes, and we drove off through the English can- 
tonment, then into the narrow streets of the dense native city, 
and came to a halt on the bank of the smiling and busy river. 
Here we took a little boat, and ascended the deck, where we 
found chairs. The rowers barely touched the water. We sim- 
ply glided slowly along with the current. It was the time of 
devotion. There are stairways at frequent intervals, leading 
from the water's edge up to the temple portals. 

The multitude are already out, bathing or getting ready to 
bathe, or robing themselves again, the bath being finished. There 
must be several thousands in all. Some are far out in the wa- 
ter, their heads just above the surface of the sacred stream, and 
their eyes fixed upon the eastern sky. They do not move a 
muscle, but are lost in meditation. JSTo stranger's face or sud- 
den splash has any effect upon them. They are as fixed as the 
sacred pipul- trees upon the banks. Others have their holy 
Vedas before them, and slowly turn the worn leaves. Their 
faces wear a pleased expression, as though they know the prom- 
ises are fulfilled now and here. Others recline upon the step- 
ways up the ghats, the bright sun pouring its welcome heat 
upon their bared heads. Many are pilgrims, and their joy is 
great, as they walk out into the sacred stream, and halt, and 
put their heads beneath its surface, for the first and only time, 
after the pilgrimage of perhaps a thousand miles. Not a few, 
perhaps, of these have measured the whole distance of their wan- 
dering by their own bodies, their method being to lie upon the 



564 INDIRA. 

ground, stretch out the hand as far as possible, mark the spot 
which it can reach, and then get up, put their feet at that place, 
lie down again, and so repeat the measurement. A great many 
of the bathers have brass water-jars with them, which they fill 
for use through the day, if living in Benares, or, in case they 
live at a distance, for carrying to their far-off homes. 

Every minute presents a new scene. Here, at an open space, 
is the expiring fire where a body had been burned, and the lit- 
tle mound of pale ashes in the centre is all that is left of the 
beloved. The portals of temples on the river front are filled 
with outgoing or incoming worshippers. Occasionally a splen- 
did private home conies into view — a Hindu prince's house, 
which he has bought, and is now occupying, until the silver 
cord shall be loosed. The Brahman who dies on the banks of 
the Ganges has the shortest path to heaven. 

Sacred bulls roam everywhere, no hand injuring one of them, 
and all of them fed by reverent Hindus. They can stop and 
munch at anybody's strawpile or doorway, and are always wel- 
come guests. Many people are eating their simple morning 
meal, as though this place, by the river-bank, makes holy any 
dish. Priests are to be seen in the midst of the multitude. It 
is said that out of the total population of 600,000 in Benares, 
80,000 are officiating Brahman priests. 

The fakir is the most ostentatious of the priestly class. He 
sits by the roadside, covers himself with dirt, lives on alms, 
mumbles his prayers, and holds his face towards the blazing sun. 
Here, on the bank of the Ganges, is many a fakir. They lean 
on the incline of the ghats, and are well out in the water, or rest 
on a boatside, and seem lost in contemplation. Their faces are 
seldom cheerful. They are pictures of filth and despair. The 
women of the upper Hindu classes are not to be seen just now. 
They have all gone home. They left their houses early in the 
morning, say at four, were borne in palanquins to the bank, 
entered their richly ornamented boat, and were rowed out in 
the middle of the stream. The boat, by a peculiar construction, 
has a lattice-work for the water to run through. The bottom 
is firm, and here they take their bath, unobserved by any eyes, 
and are speedily rowed back to their palanquins, and are borne 
homeward by fleet-footed kulis. 

But not all the rich are thus early. Some have only just ar- 



BEWARES THE HOLY CITY. 



565 



rivecl, and. will soon be off again. Their journey has been long 
and painful. The rest of life, they know, is short. But it must 
be sweetened by a bath in the sacred river, and sacrifices of 
flowers in the temples of Benares. The joy which overspreads 
many a face, as the holy water laves it for the first time, can 




ELEVATION OF TEMPLE OP VISHWESHWAR AT BENARES. 



be seen in a moment. It is the fulfilment of the hopes of a life- 
time. Is the water cold % Yes. I could not endure the shock 
three minutes, yet these people seem to be accustomed to it. 
However, there is many a trembling form. It is the religious 
associations which make all pain an ecstasy. 



566 INDIKA. . 

Infanticide. 

In former times the drowning of female children was a com- 
mon incident in this busy morning scene. The following picture 
is true to history : 

" Zeida hath laid her basket down, 
Her offering to the sacred river; 
No tears even yet her eye doth own, 
But every feeble limb doth quiver ; 

" And sobs each like a dying gasp, 
Burst from that agonized breast, 
To which, with strong and straining clasp, 
The hapless babe is pressed. 

" A smile across its features plays 
Unconsciously — and now another, 
Answering the miserable gaze 
Of that most wretched mother." 



" A thrill of anguish shook her frame, 

Then a brief frenzy o'er her came, 
The thin veil from her head she tore, 

And the poor infant round and round 

In the soft gauzy folds she wound, 
That soon its struggles might be o'er. 

"And witli quick steps, though each one sank, 

In the green, oozy river bank, 
Down among the reeds she cowered. 

There gently laid the fated child, 

And, o'er it, from her basket, piled 
Green leaves, and blossoms showered, 
Then pressing both hands to her head, 

As if in agony of fear 

Its dying shriek to hear, 
Nerved by despair, with frenzied speed she fled." 

Drifting with the Ganges. 

We halt now and then, to take in more fully the strange 
morning scene in the Ganges at Benares. Palaces, bearing the 
names of all the principal native rulers, line the bank. Towers, 
lattices, porticoes, spires, and minarets, of all colors, form a match- 



BENARES THE HOLT CITY. 



567 



less panorama of Oriental splendor.* Every moment the pano- 
rama shifts. But in each case there is animation. The scenes 
upon the forty-seven step ways, or ghats, which lead up from 
the river's edge to the terrace along the upper bank, are at once 




WtfPZfz, 



A WINDOW IN BENARES. 



bewildering and revolting. One face I can never forget — an 
aged man, absorbed, with eyes fixed -upon the sun, as though 
hoping that he might be wafted that moment from the Ganges 
to the celestial city. Brahmanism and Mohammedanism exist 



* Temple, " India in 1880," p. 35. 



568 INDIRA. 

side by side here. We drift with the current until we come 
opposite the tall minaret built by the great Aurangzeb. 

"When the Mohammedans captured Benares, three centuries 
ago, they mutilated many of the temples, but did not prohibit 
Hindu worship. Their policy in India was more liberal, per- 
haps, than on any other conquered field. While permitting 
many of the Hindu temples to stand, they planted their own 
mosques, and reared their minarets, in close proximity. The 
mosque and minarets of Aurangzeb, on the bank of the Ganges, 
at Benares, however, stand on the site of a temple of Mahadev, 
or Shiv, or, as he is commonly called, Siva. 

Yiew from a Minaret. 

The minarets are of singularly graceful proportions, and no 
view of the busy scene along this river in early morning is com- 
plete which does not include the prospect from the balcony at 
the top of one of them. We turn towards the bank, step ashore, 
pick our way through the busy bathers, and ascend the one 
hundred and twenty steps of the ghat to the platform of the 
mosque. Sacred bulls crowd about us, as though the lords of 
this creation. Dogs, too, abound, and are sure of their rights. 
They are a mangy herd, and I took pains to keep as far from 
them as possible. 

The ascent to the top of the minaret is by a stairway, which, 
with the steps up the ghat, makes the whole distance from the 
surface of the river to the balcony of the minaret two hundred 
and fifty feet. The air within the minaret is stifling, and I am 
very glad to reach the balcony and feast my eyes upon this 
wonderful picture. 

Benares lies at my feet. The green and smiling English part 
of the city stretches like a horseshoe about it, each end resting 
upon the bank of the Ganges. Far out in the country the fields 
are beautiful and of varied colors. The curves of the river, 
above and below, are exceedingly graceful. All along the bank, 
at my feet, there is a world of life and variety — people from all 
Hindustan wading, floating, or resting in the water, or scattered 
up and down the stepways of the ghats. Temples of all sizes 
now come out into new splendor within the native city. The nar- 
row streets run in all possible directions, without the least re- 
gard to angles or points of the compass. 



CHAPTER LXIL 

A RIDE THROUGH BENARES. 

At the foot of the minaret we found our carriage in waiting, 
and began to thread our way through the street of the brass - 
workers to the Golden Temple. It is dedicated to Shiv, the 
poison god, because Shiv swallowed the poison when the gods 
churned the ocean. The temple is a square, with three towers 
above it, a dome at each of the three corners. The towers are 
of stone, over which are copper plates, and over these again 
are gold plates, the latter giving the name to the temple. The 
quadrangle, constituting the temple proper, is thronged with 
worshippers. 

The "Well of Knowledge. 

Near by is the celebrated "Well of Knowledge. Here Shiv 
is supposed to reside. The stench of this well is intolerable. 
There is a shop near by where flowers are sold for offerings to 
the god. Every worshipper buys some of them, and comes to 
the well and casts them in. Then there are others constantly 
standing about the well, drinking the filthy water, as though 
it were nectar. The flowers fall into the well, and there de- 
compose, and the water is thus made filthy and poisonous. It 
is surprising that such Avater does not produce almost instant 
death. Pilgrims come and go all the while, but no pilgrimage 
to Benares the Sacred is complete without at least one precious 
draught from the Well of Knowledge. There are natives beat- 
ing gongs near by ; fakirs lounging about, covered with dirt ; 
begging monks of all ages ; and a throng of pilgrims, constantly 
walking over the wet quadrangle to the holy well, drinking, 
dropping their coins, casting in flowers, and then moving slowly 
off, as if they had had one view of the eternal city, and must 
now go out into the gross world again. For offence to all the 
senses, I never saw a scene equalling this. I became faint be- 



570 



INDIKA. 



cause of the dense and corrupt odors of the spot, and we hur- 
ried away. 

A common object of attention is the sacred cow. Here and 
there one moves along, stops at a bazar front, and gets some 
food, none daring to deny the intruder a wisp of straw or hay. 
The bull, throughout Bengal, bears heavy burdens, but his life 
is held to be sacred. Observant travellers claim that the na- 




SCRAMBLING FOR PEAS. 



tives feed him sparingly, and yet get all the labor out of him 
possible, without endangering his life.* 

We drive next to the Monkey Temple. Here is a place where 
the monkeys are the principal object of interest. "We have no 
sooner come to a halt than they slip softly out from their places 
of concealment behind trees or houses, and leap gleefully 



Jacolliot, " Voyage au Pays cles Fakirs, Charrneurs," p. 124. Paris, 1881. 



A RIDE THROUGH BEWARES. 571 

about. They are in great numbers, and appear to expect some- 
thing to eat. However, as we are only Christians, we have 
failed to supply ourselves with provisions for the filthy but 
sacred brutes. Many of the monkeys live in the hollow of an 
old tree near the temple. They scamper about all parts of the 
temple spaces, and appear to have undisturbed access to the 
whole consecrated place. 

While Benares is the centre of Hindu worship, it early became 
a field for Christian missions and education. I have nowhere 
seen a more beautiful school for native girls than here. Mrs. 
Lazarus was acquainted with the ladies in charge, and I had the 
opportunity to visit all departments of it. The girls range 
from about three to eighteen years of age, and are all, to the 
number of five hundred, instructed in the various branches of 
an English Christian education. The ornamental work, such as 
embroidery, is beautifully executed. This school occupies a large 
building in the heart of the native city. Between that on the 
one hand, and the offensive temple service on the other, it is not 
difficult to tell which will win in the long race of the future. 

Queen's College. 

Queen's College is a fine institution, founded in 1847, in part 
by private subscription and in part by government aid. It is 
well located, in a broad open space, and its appointments are 
comfortable and attractive. The lecture - rooms, library, and 
archaeological collection compare favorably with any institu- 
tion of similar grade in England or America. 

Old Sarnath. 

If we do not know the age of Benares, how shall we arrive 
at that of the city which preceded it ? About four miles in the 
country from the city of to-day there are remains of two great 
towers, whose mode of construction and general shape prove 
them to be memorials of a time long anterior to any of the most 
ancient structures which have thus far been discovered in Be- 
nares. The group of houses hear which they stand is called 
Sarnath, and a drive thither occupied an afternoon. Here Miss 
Lazarus was my wise and patient guide. Long before we reached 
the place the higher of these towers stood out prominently, and 
when we came in full view of it, and rested within its shadow, it 



572 INDIKA. 

was clear, from the remarkable belts of carving, that we were in 
the presence of one of the oldest memorials in all India. 

Here, in this ancient Sarnath, we came across the traces of 
the Buddhism of the India of the distant times. This was the 
Deer Park at which Buddha arrived on leaving Gaya, and, at- 
taining to Buddhahood, where he began his public ministry. 
The great tower was designed to commemorate some act, or a 
spot, to which special sanctity was attached at the time, but of 
which there is now no record. It was originally of immense 
size, and ornamented with great care. Whether it was part of 
a great building, whose traces are now entirely gone, no one 
knows. But this much remains — an immense tower, one hun- 
dred and twenty-eight feet above the plain, with a diameter 
of ninety-three feet. The lower part is of stone, and the upper 
of brick. There are broad faces around the lower part, in which 
are niches, where images of Buddha probably stood. Around 
the whole are fillets, of singularly beautiful and symmetrical 
patterns. These fillets are worthy of the closest study. The 
very sections which make up one fillet repeatedly change, and 
yet so closely do the two which join resemble each other that 
one barely observes the transition. 

The patterns belong to a very remote period, and will, in time, 
help towards the determining of the exact age of the tower. 
The upper part of the tower was either never finished, or has 
been injured, and so long ago that it has the appearance of a 
great structure falling to pieces of itself. 

The Chinese Buddhist pilgrims of the fourth and seventh cen- 
turies visited Sarnath, and described the two towers, but with- 
out throwing light on the purpose of either. The later of the 
pilgrims states that the kingdom of Varakasi, or Benares, was 
six hundred and sixty-seven miles in circumference ; that in the 
city there were thirty Buddhist monasteries, which supported 
three thousand monks ; that the great tower was built by Asoka ; 
that the Deer Park monastery was divided into eight parts, and 
contained palaces ; that each of the niches in the tower held a 
statue of Buddha in embossed gold ; that west of this was the 
tank where Buddha bathed ; and that, farther along, was the 
tank where he washed his monk's water-pot ; and, still farther, 
the one where he washed his clothes. 

We went within the wall enclosing the ancient monastery, 



A BIDE THROUGH BENARES. 



573 



and examined every part. From there we proceeded to the 
smaller of the two towers, and clambered up the elevation on 
which it stands, and then to the top of the structure itself. The 




BUDDHIST TOWEB AT SARNATH, NEAR BENARES. 

view of the beautiful country, and the city in the distance, was 
charming. The ride home through the English cantonment was 
delightful, and a fit close to my busiest day in Benares the Sacred. 



CHAPTEK LXIII. 

A HALT AT ALLAHABAD. 

Mr. Howard, an advocate of Allahabad, accompanied me to 
the chief points of interest in that " Holy City." That gentle- 
man had come to India when a very young man, and was in 
Allahabad when the mutiny broke out. He was one of the 
many civilians who saw the danger, shouldered his musket, and 
did excellent service until the mutiny was conquered. It was 
a rare pleasure to have the society of a gentleman of such varied 
culture, and especially of such intimate acquaintance with the 
historical associations of the city and its fortifications. 

The Allahabad of to-day is, in the Indian sense, a new city. 
About three centuries ago Akbar, greatest of the Moguls, founded 
both the city and fort. But this was by no means the first Al- 
lahabad. Here the Jamna and the Ganges form a junction. 
Each is a large river before the two unite. After the union 
the Jamna loses its name in that of the Ganges, and the great 
stream moves on with a majesty and power impressive in the 
extreme. There is no place in the whole length of the wonder- 
ful river to which such large bodies of pilgrims resort as on the 
plain outside the city where the rivers unite. A bath here has 
a peculiar sanctity, and must have had long before the Moham- 
medans crossed the Indus for the conquest of the region watered 
by the Indus and the Ganges. 

If we look at the commanding location, the advantages for 
defence, and the delightful atmosphere, this must have been one 
of the earliest places in India to attract a population and to grow 
into a commercial centre. It first comes into notice in the third 
century before the Christian era, when Megasthenes, the Greek 
tourist, visited it. That industrious Chinese pilgrim, Hiouen 
Tsang, also visited the place, and makes mention of it in his 
travels. The old city was, perhaps next to Benares, the most 
sacred to the Brahman mind of any place in India. The pecul- 



A HALT AT ALLAHABAD. 



575 



iar ground of the sanctity was that Brahma here made sacri- 
fices of the horse in memory of his having recovered the four 
Vedas from Shankhasur. When Akbar conquered the place, every 
attempt was made to give a Mohammedan color to the new city 
which arose upon the old. But the change of masters has made 
little change in faith. Of the one hundred and fifty thousand 
people, one hundred thousand are Hindus. 

The sacred tongue of land where the two rivers combine is 
hallowed, and will remain so until the Brahman faith floats awav 




THE MAGH MELA, OR ANNUAL PAIR, AT ALLAHABAD. 



before the Christian cross. It is estimated that at the Magh 
Mela, a religious fair, not less than from half a million to one 
million devout Hindus come from every part of the country to 
see it. Many people die on the way ; others die while encamped 
on the plain, and still others on the way home. 

Here I encountered the first strong reminders of the great 
mutiny of 1856 and 1857. Benares felt the shock, but did not 
suffer materially. What was the cause of the great difference 
between the places which suffered and those which did not? 
Why did not Benares and Allahabad run with blood, as did 



576 INDIKA. 

Cawnpore and Lucknow, and, longest of all, Delhi ? It was a 
twofold cause — generals, on the one hand, and English faith or no 
faith in the native soldiers, on the other. Wherever a general re- 
lied solely on the loyalty of the native troops, they betrayed him, 
and slew him and his countrymen. Wherever the general dis- 
trusted them, and had them so officered and distributed, and so 
armed that their ammunition and arms could be taken from 
them, he was master of the situation, and little or no blood was 
shed. Because Wheeler, in Cawnpore, placed full confidence in 
his sepoys, not only did he fall, but the city was converted into 
a butcher's pen, at the mercy of Nana Sahib. Allahabad came 
very near being a scene of like bloodshed. A mere incident 
saved the day. Captain Plunkett believed in the native sol- 
diers, and allowed them their guns. But Captain Birch begged 
Colonel Simpson to reclaim the guns, as they were wanted in 
the fort. The sepoys refused to allow the guns to be brought 
to the fort, and were making off with them. Then the Oudh 
cavalry, also natives, were ordered to stop them ; but the cavalry 
sided with the sepoys. 

This was a fearful crisis. Shots were fired ; fifteen English 
officers fell, and confusion reigned supreme. Off in the fort 
there was a body of Sikh soldiers. These Sikhs had been con- 
quered in the northwest by England, and some were now em- 
ployed as soldiers. It was a question what they would do. It was 
feared they would join the sepoys and the Oudh cavalry. But 
to the surprise of all, they did no such thing. Their officer, an 
Englishman named Brasyer, had their affections, and he drew 
up his stalwart Sikhs, and had them ready tofire. The sepoys 
were ordered to give up their guns. They wavered a moment. 
The pause was fatal to them. They began to fear the levelled 
muskets of the Sikhs. They surrendered their guns, and Alla- 
habad was saved to the English. 

Meanwhile the jails had been opened by some sepoys, and 
out came the convicts, with clanking chains, which the natives 
could not unlock. These people went from one English house 
to another, and set fire to them, and caught every English man, 
woman, or child they could find, and then cut them to pieces 
and cast them into the- flames. It was pandemonium. But it 
lasted only a short time. The victory had been won at the fort, 
and to the small band of English soldiers and Sikhs now came 



A HALT AT ALLAHABAD. 577 

the brave volunteers of Allahabad. Englishmen who were only 
civilians, but who kept guard at the fort night and day, had 
learned in a few days how to use arms of every size. The tri- 
umph of the English at Allahabad constitutes one of the bright- 
est pages in the history of British heroism in that land. 

Mr. Howard conducted me to the esplanade of the fort, where 
I enjoyed a charming view of the country for many miles, and 
where I could see at my left the confluence of the Jamna and 
the Ganges. The dark water of the former is soon lost in the 
light water of the latter. The Ganges, after receiving the Jam- 
na, is one mile and a half in width. There are many places at 
the fort where I could walk, and enjoy a different view at each 
point. The terraces, towers, double walls, parade-ground, and 
comfortable officers' quarters form a most pleasing picture of 
a life far different from that which ruled here in the old times, 
when Akbar reared the fort, and, later, when the Emperor Ja- 
hangir had his palace here, and dispensed rude justice amid all 
the splendor of a Mogul court. 

The Asoka Pillar is one of the most interesting historical 
monuments in India. It represents a class, now almost gone, 
of finely polished shafts, of granite or other durable stone, which 
date back nearly to the beginning of the Christian era. They 
contained Asoka's edicts, and were set up in various places 
throughout the country, as convenient means for promulgating 
laws. But when the land was overrun by new conquerors, the 
latter made use of the vacant faces of the pillar to record their 
own triumphs. This pillar in Allahabad is the best preserved, 
and by far the finest, which I saw in India. Generally, the 
Asoka pillars are in several fragments, and, though erect, are 
supported and braced by iron bands. In the present case, after 
the inscription of Asoka there is another by Chandra Gupta, 
and still another by the Emperor Jahangir. This last is a rec- 
ord of the date of the emperor's accession to the Mogul throne. 

When near the Pillar of Asoka we visited the celebrated 
Akshai Bar, or Imperishable Fig-Tree. We descended a TeJ^r 
steps, and found ourselves in an underground passage. After 
going thirty-five feet in one direction, the chamber makes a turn 
to the left, and extends thirty feet farther. Here, in the dark- 
ness of this place — and it is as hot as it is dark — there is the 
trunk of a fig-tree, which has neither roots nor branches, and 
37 



578 



INDIKA. 



yet throws out leaves. This is owing to the moisture which 
prevails in the place, and so long as any sap remains in the log 
there is an occasional appearance of leaves. The Hindus have 
a rare gift for turning any phenomenon into religious uses. So 
they have made a most holy sanctuary of the place where this 
worthless object is. The hundreds of thousands who come to 
the Mela every year must, of course, see the Akshai Bar before 
going home, and bring offerings to Shiv, whose statue is in the 
middle of the cave. When the log of the fig-tree gets dry, and 
can produce no more leaves, it is secretly removed, and another 
immediately substituted for it. 



<? 




KOFT (DAMASCENED) SHIELD, MODERN, PANJAB. 



CHAPTER LXIY. 

CHRISTMAS IN CAWNPORE — CHRISTIAN WORKERS. 

My arrival in Cawnpore was in the midst of Christmas fes- 
tivities. The English residents in India do not forget the Christ- 
mas associations of their mother country, but convert their In- 
dian homes into scenes of festivity. The churches are decorated. 
The houses are all aglow with joy. Gifts come over from Eng- 
land, and go far and wide to the dear ones scattered over India, 
Ceylon, and Burma. This time of unusual joy is chosen for the 
great festal occasions in the schools. The native mind is pro- 
foundly impressed by the general gladness, and there are no hap- 
pier people than the native Christians, to whom Christmas comes 
with a welcome which means far more to them than all their for- 
mer pagan festivities. All the ecclesiastical bodies and the various 
missionary societies share in the gladness. The Christmas cele- 
bration in India, therefore, combines the domestic memories of 
England and the United States with that sacred significance of 
the great event which unites the Christian churches of all lands. 

My Christmas in Cawnpore furnished an excellent opportu- 
nity to see the brotherhood of missionary workers, and to ob- 
serve, in miniature, the triumph of the Gospel over the dying 
faiths of India. Cawnpore is, possibly, not in advance of some 
other Christian centres. But I soon found abundant evidence 
that the missionary advance here was far beyond my most san- 
guine anticipations. "What would the immortal Henry Martyn, 
who lived in Cawnpore awhile, say if he could only see the 
transformation which has taken place since his humble beginning ? 
If the people far away in the West, who have contributed largely 
to Indian missions, could see the many thousands who attend 
the Christmas services in Cawnpore, the multitude of native Chris- 
tians, with their great company of teachers, and the thousands of 
children in the schools, they would be amazed and delighted at 
their Christian attainments. 



580 



INDIKA. 



All the churches at work in Cawnpore are succeeding finely. 
Here I met a friend of former years, the Rev. G. H. McGrew, 
D.D., who, with his West Virginia fibre, has wrought with a 




GATHERING CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS. 



steadiness of will and scholarly enthusiasm which were not sur- 
passed by even a Marshman. He was busily engaged on a new 



CHRISTMAS m CAWNPORE.— CHRISTIAN WORKERS. 581 

edition of his " Makhzan i Ilm i Ilahi," or " Compendium of The- 
ology." When I saw him taking ill-clad Hindu children by the 
hand, and patiently listening to their questions, I knew, even 
better than before, that a theological training, of itself, never 
unfits a man for the highest ministry among the needy, and for 
sacrifices to build them up into a beautiful life. Mr. McGrew 
had charge of the native Methodist Episcopal Church in Cawn- 
pore, and before his return to America, in 1885, brought to 
completion the handsome new edifice in the busiest and most 
populous street in Cawnpore. The building would be an orna- 
ment to any American city. The Rev. Mr. ISTeeld had super- 
vision of our Industrial School. He had already a good grasp 
on the language, and knew well the native mind. Here is a 
problem which is being rapidly solved by him and other mission- 
aries in India — how a Hindu boy or girl can get an educa- 
tion, and earn it during the process. The young people in the 
school are all natives, but with as quick wits as ever battled 
with a spelling-book in any language. They work in Eng- 
lish factories part of the day, and study the rest of the day, ex- 
cept such time as is given for recreation. By this system they 
not only secure a Christian education, but pay for it as they go. 
The Rev. Mr. Maxwell was the successful pastor of our English 
church. I had the pleasure of being present at a special Christ- 
mas service arranged by him, where every part was a beautiful 
and touching reminder of the usual Christmas exercises in the 
home-land. 

Christmas was a busy day. Early in the morning, long be- 
fore daylight, I heard the voices of a choir of young natives, 
who had come within our compound, and were doing all in their 
power to remind us of the joy of Christmas-tide. These were 
Christians, but there were many who performed little offices of 
respect for the day who were not Christians, and whose whole 
life, as either Mohammedans or Hindus, had been a violation 
of Christian teaching. They were tradesmen, servants, and 
others, all in some secular way related to the Christians and 
English-speaking people of Cawnpore. In the years past they 
had caught the meaning of the Anglo-Saxon's love of the day. 
They had observed the gladness. They had seen the happy 
children, and had learned why they valued the day. They knew 
it was the best and gladdest of all the year in the far-off lands 
37* 



582 



INDIKA. 



of Christendom. Hence they were intent to do what would 
please the English-speaking people about them. Thus they be- 
came happy and great-hearted too, as another Christmas dawned. 




tA.^i^ 



THE SUCCESSFUL ROBBER. 



They came with gifts of fruit and other trifles, to make even 
happier the English homes in Cawnpore. 

I went with Mr. McGrew to a place where materials were 
collecting and work was beginning for a new missionary build- 



CHRISTMAS IN CAWNPORE.— CHRISTIAN WORKERS. 583 

ing. In two minutes the turbaned old native ran off into the 
grove and brought back fresh oranges, plantains, and other fruits, 
and lavished them upon us. Mrs. Neeld was receiving dishes 
and baskets of fruit and flowers, and other things, all day, borne 
by dark Hindu and Mohammedan hands. A close criticism 
would say that these people expected a full return in presents 
for all these things. Suppose they did. "What if they thought 
that in one way and another they would get back tenfold for 
all they had brought? Even this was a tribute to the Anglo- 
Saxon's sense of gratitude. It was much for even a pagan to 
see the English gladness on this day, and to recognize it. His 
century and a half of contact with Anglo-Saxons had taught him 
why the heart of the Christian was happy when Christmas came. 
Of course, he knew the English hand never leaves itself a final 
debtor to the Indian. Touching, indeed, were these many 
heathen tributes to Christianity. Flowers and fruits were lav- 
ished upon the Europeans of Cawnpore, during this glad Christ- 
mas day, by people who had never dreamed of renouncing their 
idolatry. Even fresh leaves from the sacred peepul-tree were 
hung before the doors of the mission-buildings, as one way of 
paying a compliment to the faith which had brought the mission- 
aries to that Eastern land. 

The Industrial School had its Christmas celebration. Prizes 
were distributed for the most studious and industrious, while 
smaller gifts were made to every one of the scholars. It was 
a happy group. All were neatly clad. The most wonderful 
scene was the universal Christmas celebration, in the large Me- 
morial School building. About twelve hundred children, be- 
sides many adults, were present. The head masters and teach- 
ers accompanied the } r oung people. The girls were on one side 
of the hall, and the boys on the other. The girls might well 
congratulate themselves that they were there at all. Only Chris- 
tianity would allow them to come on such an occasion and en- 
joy a public festivity. All the Indian faiths have trampled on 
womanhood these long ages. 

The singing of the immense congregation of children was in 
Hindustani, and was very beautiful and varied. American melo- 
dies accompanied the Hindustani words. There were addresses, 
dialogues, musical performances, and all the belongings of a beau- 
tiful native Christian festival. There were a few seats, and they 



584 JNDIEA. 

only for Europeans and Americans. The twelve hundred young 
people sat as flat on the floor as toads. It is their way. They 
are brought up to do it, and enjoy it. Clad in their bright colors, 
with their holiday smiles on, and waiting for the prizes and 
gifts of sweets and other things connected with the happy hour, 
certainly no happier company ever gathered together beneath 
the Indian sky. 

I spent my last evening in Cawnpore with a company of 
Christian workers connected with all the communions of Cawn- 
pore. Miss Easton, who had charge of the Young Ladies' Semi- 
nary, was my kind hostess. The hours I spent beneath that 
roof, in conversation with those noble workers for Hindu evan- 
gelization, are among the most delightful memories of my Indian 
winter. A part of our Christmas dinner, notably the oysters, 
was from the United States. The oranges were growing abun- 
dantly out in the grounds of the seminary, while roses of many 
varieties, and other plants, shed their fragrance along the path- 
ways, and made glad and unique the Christmas hours. 

The seminary is situated immediately on the Ganges. The flow 
here is rapid, and the river is very broad and deep. One acquires 
a strange liking for this wonderful Ganges. It grows dearer 
every day. I have crossed it over and over again, and have 
been rowed on it, and have wandered along its banks at leisure, 
and it at last became a friend. I always went to it, when within 
convenient distance, and sat upon the sward, and gazed upon 
its sacred waters. It is a river of humors and moods. It never 
greets you twice just alike. At no spot, in all its long flow, is 
it more nearly at its best, or does it wear a sweeter smile, than 
when it flows past Cawnpore. 



CHAPTEK LXY. 

REMINDERS OF THE MASSACRE IN CAWNPORE. 

One would never suppose, from these pictures of peace and 
beauty in Cawnpore at Christmas, that here were enacted the 
most brutal scenes in the terrible mutiny of 1857,, Circum- 
stances combined to make this place the very heart of the rebel- 
lion. A short distance up the river there is the village of Bithur. 
Here lived the last scion of the great Marhatta confederation. 
His name was Dandhu Panth, but commonly called Nana Sahib. 
He was the adopted son of Baji Rao, the last Peshwa, or king 
of the Marhattas, and the inheritor of his houses, lands, jewels, 
and other property. He had been adopted by the Peshwa in 
1832, and had been trained to regard himself as a prince. A 
few years before the mutiny the old Baji Rao died, and the 
government, under the lead of Lord Dalhousie, declared that 
the dignity of the Peshwaship now ceased, and that Nana Sahib 
would inherit only private property. The pension and the royal 
salute were now withdrawn. All appearance of royalty ceased. 

Nana Sahib's Revenge. 

Nana Sahib resolved on revenge. The one hundredth anni- 
versary of the Battle of Plassey was chosen as the day for retri- 
bution against the longer rule of the English in India. In the 
eye of the natives Nana Sahib represented the old royalty of 
the powerful Marhattas.* For four years he had tried to get 
the Board of Directors to reverse their decision, but they re- 
fused. Nana was quiet, but he thought only of revenge, and 
waited, close at hand. 

But his nearness to Cawnpore was not the only ground of the 
weakness of the English position. The commanding officer of 
the English troops was the aged General Wheeler. He was a 

* Lee, " The Indian Mutiny. Events at Cawnpore," p. 1. 



586 INDIKA. 

simple-hearted man, and had but little fear of the mutiny of his 
native troops. Then, too, he was anxious to avoid giving to the 
natives any proof of suspicion of them, and, instead of having 
the English families take refuge within the magazine enclosure, 
he intrenched himself, and called the English people within his 
lines, and prepared for defence. 

The Prison Pen. 

But here he was practically helpless. The mutineers fired in 
upon his scanty force, killing alike men, women, and children. 
Wheeler's intrenchment was a narrow space. I could easily see 
its outline — a line of small stones, fifty yards apart, marking 
the exact dimensions. The whole space was only two hundred 
yards square. Outside the intrenchments was a well, into which 
the poor besieged people had to throw their beloved dead, at 
night, or at such moments as the dead could be borne to it, in 
intervals of merciless firing from Sana's troops. Cholera and 
small-pox had broken out within the enclosure, and there was 
no room for burying the dead. Two hundred and fifty bodies 
were thrown into this well during the three weeks of the invest- 
ment. It is conjectured that as many as five hundred more 
bodies were otherwise disposed of, being buried by the mutineers 
or devoured by jackals. 

The provisions were now scanty. The torrid heat was intense, 
there being no shelter for the beleaguered. Farther resistance 
was hopeless. 

Only a very few of these English people were soldiers. The 
most were civilians, ladies, and children. They were the fami- 
lies and friends of English people, either residing or visiting in 
India. They had, for the most part, been accustomed to all the 
refinements and luxuries of delightful homes. Now they were 
suddenly thrown upon the mercy of bloodthirsty natives. That 
they should die rapidly, under such exposure, was natural. But 
many were shot down by the sepoy sharpshooters from sur- 
rounding buildings. 

Nana Sahib's Teick. 

One day a note was received by General Wheeler. It was 
from Nana's own hand : "All those who are in no way connected 
with the acts of Lord Dalhousie, and are willing to lay down 



REMINDERS OF THE MASSACRE IN CAWNPORE. 



587 



their arms, shall receive a safe passage to Allahabad." Here was 
an offer to the English to furnish boats to them to take them 
all down the Ganges to Allahabad, if they would surrender all 
their arms and ammunition. "Wheeler thought it a very good 
offer. Some said, "No. We will live or die where we are." 
But Wheeler told them that the ammunition and provisions 
were nearly exhausted, and that the cholera and small-pox pre- 
vailed, and that the offer ought to be accepted. He carried his 
point over all the remonstrances. Twenty-one boats were loaded 
with the English sufferers, but all ran aground except one, which 
glided out into the 
stream. A few of the 
wretched English cap- 
tives were still left on 
the river-bank, there be- 
ing no boats for them. 
So soon as the twenty- 
one boats had been laden 
with the fugitives the se- 
poy mutineers, who were 
concealed on either bank, 
opened fire on them, 
knocked the boats to 
pieces, and let into the 
deep and swift Ganges 
those whom the shot had 
spared. Many struggled 
to the shore, but were 
killed or captured on 
reaching the bank. 
There were four, how- 
ever, who escaped — the only ones who survived, to tell the tale 
of unparalleled cruelty. 

Meanwhile the only boat which had escaped from the ghat 
ran aground a mile farther down the river. Here the people 
who were aboard, after desperate resistance, led by Major Yibart, 
were captured, and carried back to join those who had been taken 
at the ghat. Then the whole body were carried to Nana Sahib's 
headquarters and confined in two small rooms. Here, for two 
weeks, they suffered untold indignities. When Havelock ap- 




GENERAL HAVELOCK. 



588 INDIKA. 

proached Cawnpore they were transferred to another house, 
nearer the native city. There, the day before Havelock's victo- 
rious troops entered Cawnpore, the captives were cruelly slaugh- 
tered by Mohammedan butchers from the city, the sepoys having 
refused to do such revolting work. These men, with knives and 
swords, cut down the English prisoners, the fatal work taking 
from five in the morning until half-past ten. Three of those 
butchers fell prostrate by their efforts, overcome by the heat, the 
stench, and the sight of so much blood. 

When Havelock reached this wretched place, then silent as 
the tomb, it took his men four days to bury the dead, either by 
putting them into the well or digging graves for them. 

The English Revenge. 

I learned here a most effective way of impressing the native 
mind with the majesty of English rule and the certainty of pun- 
ishment. It seems that General Neill had the best chance to 
administer punishment. When he took the prisoners captured 
from Nana into the prison where the great massacre had taken 
place, the blood lay thick and clotted. General jSTeill had the 
whole floor marked off into squares. Then he made his captured 
sepoys clean it all up. He afterwards had them tied to the muz- 
zles of his guns and shot into fragments. When the news of 
this method of dealing with the sepoy murderers spread abroad 
among the native population, it created the utmost consterna- 
tion. Perhaps no one thing which took place during the mu- 
tiny produced a profounder impression on the native mind than 
this. The touch of Christian blood was a breaking of all caste, 
and, to the Hindu mind, a sending to immediate perdition every 
one who had done it. 

Nana, with his main army, escaped. Nothing was heard of 
him until April of the following year, 1858, when General 
Grant's brigade captured a part of his army while retreating 
up into Nepal. His prime-minister, Azim Ullah, was killed by a 
round shot at a fortified village in Oudh. 

The Capture of Nana Sahib's Treasures. 
When the English were once more in full possession of Cawn- 
pore, they went to Bithur to see if they could get possession of 
Nana's treasures. In his palatial compounds there were eleven 



REMINDERS OF THE MASSACRE IN CAWNPORE. 



589 



wells, and it was believed his wealth had been concealed in one 
of them. The surmise was correct. An aged man told the sol- 
diers which well contained the treasure. The water was drawn 
up. Then the bricks were taken out, and the treasure was at 
last reached. Seventeen bullock cart-loads of gold and silver 
treasure were taken from the well. Each cart, with its precious 
burden, attended by a special guard, was drawn to Cawnpore, 
and then to Calcutta, and afterwards shipped to England. This 
slow march of captured treasure through the country inspired the 
natives with an inexpressible awe. No secret was made of the 




EXECUTION OF THE SEPOYS. 



burden in the bullock-carts. It was England in possession of 
Hindu wealth. The military leaders performed another piece 
of effective strategy. They caused the guns taken from the 
Mogul chiefs in the siege of Delhi to be rolled all the way down 
from that city to Calcutta, and had them stopped in every town 
and village, to give the people an opportunity to see this strong 
proof of English power to overcome a great mutiny. 

The fabulous stores of Nana's treasures suggest a theme of 
wildest romance. The Marhatta chiefs, risen from obscurity, had 
gained some of the most important victories ever won on Indian 



590 INDIRA. 

plains. Much wealth, in curious vessels of gold and silver, and 
in priceless gems, which had been in imperial hands for ages, 
fell into their hands. But India's princes always knew where 
to hide their wealth, and when the Marhatta power declined, 
the last scions of the royal family kept the place of the treasure 
a secret. It had been borne from place to place, and was held 
as a financial basis for a possible restoration of the former power. 
But it fell into English hands. So to London it must go, that 
no native of India might cherish the delusion that it rested any- 
where on Indian soil, or could be brought into use again, to add 
splendor to a native court, or equip a native army, or buy a 
province. 

The English had better success with Sana's treasures than 
with Nana himself. They never captured him. The story of 
his later fortunes is surrounded with mystery. It is supposed 
that when his cause became hopeless, by the English capture of 
Delhi, he went off into the jungle, and fell either by his own 
hand or by the wild beasts. 

Scene of the Butcheries. 

I spent an afternoon in going over the beautiful grounds which 
were once the scene of the cruelties and butchery perpetrated 
upon the English people. The desolate grounds of 1857 are 
now a picture of rare beauty. The whole region is converted 
into beautiful gardens, where shrubbery and flowers combine 
to form a scene of surpassing loveliness. The eye can see noth- 
ing but tropical luxuriance. Winding paths, clumps of rare 
flowers, and surprising combinations of foliage and colors, make a 
scene of varied and harmonious loveliness. Through the open- 
ings in the shrubbery one can see, in the distance, the now peace- 
ful Ganges, hurrying on towards the sea, its sacred waters still 
cool from their cradle in the glaciers of the Himalayas. 

The most notable object in these delightful gardens is a little 
octagonal Gothic structure, which crowns a mound of earth. In 
the centre of the building is the marble figure of an angel, by 
Marochetti. The arms are folded across the breast, and in each 
hand a palm is held. This edifice, with its beautiful angel, stands 
directly over the well into which the bodies of the slaughtered 
English had been cast, as their only possible grave, by the hands 
of their cruel enemies. Over the arch are these words : " These 



REMINDERS OF THE MASSACRE IN CAWNPORE. 591 

are they which, came up out of great tribulation." Inside, over 
the entrance, one reads : " Erected by the British Government, 
MDCCCLXIII." Then comes the story of the massacre : " Sacred 
to the perpetual memory of a great company of Christian people, 
chiefly women and children, who near this spot were cruelly 
murdered by the followers of Dandhu Panth, of Bithur, and 
cast, the dying with the dead, into the well below, on the YIth 
day of July, MDCCCLVII." 

Not far from this structure, with its angel, is a little ceme- 
tery. Flowers and shrubs abound everywhere, but thick among 
them are the tombstones to many of those beloved ones who 
were butchered, or died from disease, during the mutiny. 

Twining "Wreaths. 

The Memorial Church is a large and beautiful structure. All 
around it are tablets in memory of the dead, who fell in the 
massacre. For tributes to the departed, it is more a tomb than 
a church. When I entered it, to examine it closely, I saw a 
group of young English ladies engaged in twining wreaths and 
making bouquets, to hang about the tombs, or lay on the slabs, 
as tributes to the dead. I observed one young lady in particu- 
lar. She was working industriously, with piles of evergreens and 
flowers about her. I was attracted to her, because of the peculiar- 
ly serious expression on her face. "Who is she? "What disturbs 
her? I soon learned. There was one grave for which she de- 
signed her wreaths and flowers. It was that of General "Wheeler, 
whose encampment had been on the very spot where this church 
stood, and who met his death by sepoy hands. His tomb is one 
of the most prominent in the church. 

This young lady, with sad face and busy fingers, now making 
Christmas wreaths and bouquets for the aged hero's grave, was 
none other than the hero's own granddaughter. 



CHAPTER LXYI. 

LUCKNOW— THE HEART OF THE MUTINY. 

From Cawnpore to Lucknow the distance is nearly fifty miles. 
The territory over which the road passes is full of interesting 
historical associations of British rule in India. The tragedy of 
Cawnpore was sooner ended than that of Lucknow ; and, when 
the mutineers in the former city had been put to flight and 
death, the British troops hastened on to Lucknow, to close the 
agony of the suffering English people by a sharp and sudden 
attack on the mutineers. The conclusion cannot be resisted 
that the heroic patience and valorous bearing of the men, women, 
and children imprisoned in the Residency in Lucknow saved 
India to England. English domestic love and patience won the 
fight. Had the mutineers been able to enter the Lucknow Resi- 
dency, and slaughter the heroic band there, they could well have 
overcome Havelock, who was hastening to their rescue. 

When I reached Lucknow it was no picture of war which 
greeted my eyes. I had seen nothing in Cawnpore, with all its 
memories of blood and torture, but images of Christmas-tide. 
It was quite the same in Lucknow. The Anglo-Indians continue 
their festivities as long as possible. I found Christinas begin- 
ning in Calcutta, and it had been going on ever since. First of 
all came the anniversary exercises in the Centennial High School, 
then under the presidency of the Rev. Dr. Waugh, but now of 
the Rev. Dr. Badley. It was a beautiful scene— native girls and 
boys intent on a Christian education. The exercises were in 
Hindustani. The most suggestive feature of the programme 
was an enthusiastic oration by a native Hindu on the glories of 
the Battle of Plassey. Here was a young Hindu, in whose veins 
there was no English blood, declaring the inestimable benefit 
conferred by Clive on the civilization of the world by conquer- 
ing this Hindu's ancestors at Plassey! It was just about the 
same as if a young Frenchman of our day should deliver a pane- 



LUCKNOW—THE HEART OF THE MUTINY. 



595 



gyric on the English victory at Waterloo. This young Hindu, 
however, told the strict truth. 

One of the overlooked factors which aided in securing victory 
to the English in India, during the mutiny, was the bravery of 
some of the native and European troops. Those who were true 
to the English fought with consummate daring. One of the East 
Indian soldiers, now a Christian minister, George Bailey, was as 
brave as any man who ever shouldered a musket. He is a con- 
spicuous figure in clerical gatherings because of his coat made 



JEttm 



IlllllHB 







THE MARTINIERE. 



of the skin of a wild beast. The fame of his heroic deeds in 
Lucknow, against the mutineers, went far and wide. He was 
wounded and slashed in wild Indian fashion. But he outlived 
all, and has carried many rude scars ever since. He is now as 
brave a soldier of the Gospel as he was, over three decades ago, 
in defence of English supremacy in India. 

The Martiniere is one of the most notable of the large build- 
ings. It was built by General Claude Martine, as a residence, and 
is said to combine more styles of architecture than any other 



596 



INDIKA. 



structure in India. Martine was buried in the house, in a tomb 
under the central dome. His bones were scattered at the time 
of the mutiny, but were afterwards recovered and restored. 

On Monday, December 31st, there was a picnic in the beau- 
tiful park, where the entire congregation of an English church 
spent the larger part of the day. There was a suggestion that 
I would be invited to ride there on an elephant. But I gave no 
encouragement to the proposition, not having forgotten my ele- 
phantine experiences in Haidarabad. On one large elephant in 
the procession were seated a fine Bible-class of young ladies. 

One of my evenings in Lucknow was occupied in a visit to 
the charming home of Mr. Lewis Ingram. He, in addition to 
his legal duties, serves occasionally as a lay preacher. His wife 
was kind enough to exhibit some of the gold-ancl-silver-thread 
costumes which had belonged to her family for many years. 
She is a native of Delhi, and these rare objects gave me a good 
idea of the rich robes which the Mogul aristocracy wore in the 
days of their splendor. As a type of what Christianity can do 
for the home, of the happiness it brings with it, in far-off India, 
as well as in England and America, one might well stop before 
this door, and go no farther in his search. 



SS^K 




BUDDHIST COLUMN FROM THE NAHAPANA GROTTO 
AT NASSICK. 



CHAPTEK LXVII. 

MEMORIALS OF THE MUTINY. 

The historic Residency is not far from the house of the Rev. 
Dr. Waugh, where I was a guest. Whenever I had a few spare 
' moments I went over to it, and always with a new delight. The 
leisurely visit with Dr. Waugh, when we strolled over every 
part of the picturesque ruin, and climbed to the top of the high 
tower, was enough for a general understanding of the famous 
place. But I wanted to catch the spirit of those wonderful events 
which had made the siege of Lucknow famous. The sun was 
in its bright, winter blaze. The vegetation was luxuriant, and- 
of every possible color and fragrance. Here was a vast en- 
closure, where the English Resident, or representative of Eng- 
lish authority, had lived in the bygone times. His palace was 
called the Residency. 

Lucknow, being the fourth city in population in India, and 
the capital of the old kingdom of Oudh, was an important cen- 
tre for English authority. The Residency was not only the Eng- 
lish representative's palace, but the citadel of British rule. The 
great fortified mansion, with all its dependencies, covered a space 
twelve hundred feet wide and over two thousand long. The 
main edifice, though now only a picturesque ruin, can be seen 
in full outline. It consisted of a group of communicating build- 
ings, having connecting halls, subterranean chambers, a great 
banqueting-hall, large rooms with lofty ceilings in both the first 
and second stories, and verandas, balconies, and jalousies in abun- 
dance. Before it was battered by the mutineers it had been a 
charming place. One could be as private as he might choose. 
In a moment he could walk out upon a balcony, or climb to the 
tower, or saunter among the sweet shrubs and luxuriant flowers, 
or hide himself in a kiosk among the vines, and while away his 
time over the last new book from London. 

But the suggestions which push upon one at every step are 



598 INDIRA. 

not of such a quiet time as this. You are at once confronted 
by an obelisk, with Persian and Urdu inscriptions, in memory 
of the native troops who fell at the siege in defence of the Eng- 
lish people. Then come other monuments, in great numbers, 
in various parts of the ground — all of them telling the one story 
of Anglo-Saxon heroism and Indian rebellion. There is a grave- 
yard, where many of the stones are inscribed to loved ones who 
fell here, in the Kesidency, during the siege. The building was of 
brick, and there is no material where shot and shell can combine 
to make a more striking ruin than when dealing with brick. 
The shot can pierce the walls, and leave its path behind, and 
the main wall still stand. I saw the holes which the balls had 
made as though it had been a very hailstorm of lead and iron. 

The English do not rebuild the place, because, among other 
reasons, the native Indian can read here some lessons from the 
past for his guidance in the future. There is no need of a cen- 
tral citadel. The whole land is now English. Nature has grown 
wild in its freaks, and is covering rapidly the wreck made by 
war. The creepers have climbed over walls, dropped down on 
the inside of the old halls, and thrust themselves into doorways, 
while weeds and parasites in the lowest floor of the main build- 
ing make their appearance again immediately after being cut off 
or pulled up by the gang of kulis ever on the watch. A careful 
eye still finds a flattened bullet now and then in the weeds and 
plaster of the inner rooms. In a room of the second story Sir 
Henry Lawrence died. He was born in Matura, Ceylon, a place 
noted for its diamonds. His mother used to say of her boy, 
" There's my Matura diamond." 

Every room, if it only had a tongue, could probably tell of 
many a tragedy. The thousand souls — men, women, and chil- 
dren — who were cooped up here, never dared to put their heads 
out, except at imminent risk. Sepoy sharp-shooters, who had 
learned all they knew of guns, and had stolen even the guns 
themselves, from the English, stood off upon housetops and walls, 
and in the palms, and picked off an average of fifteen daily from 
the imprisoned people. The living had all they could do to bury 
the dead. When would help come ? Perhaps never. No news 
came from the outside world. Those suffering people, now reduced 
in number and strength, had small supply of ammunition, and 
still less of food. They were on short allowance of provision. 



MEMORIALS OF THE MUTINY. 599 

All this was in the heat of an Indian summer. The air was 
still, and the heat intense, both night and day. The great ban- 
queting-hall, which in former years had been the daily scene of 
luxury and festivity, was converted into a hospital. Piles of 
treasure lay in the subterranean vaults. But what was money 
in such an hour ? The hospital was dense with a crowd of sick, 
wounded, and dying. Vermin swarmed on every hand. The 
flies infested every spot, and it was impossible to overcome 
them. But the sepoy assailants were not having an easy time ; 
for the projectiles which they threw into the Residency, and 
were falling all about the English prisoners, proved that the 
regular ammunition was getting low. Blocks of wood, copper 
coins, fragments of iron, and even bullocks' horns, came whiz- 
zing within the walls. This was encouraging. 

B} T -and-by a messenger stepped into the Residency with a 
letter. He had come the long distance between Cawnpore and 
Lucknow, and brought a letter from Havelock's own brave heart. 
The hero was on his way. He would be there as soon as he 
could. But he would have to fight every foot of the way. He 
could set no day, but was doing his best. 

This was the first encouraging word. The prisoners took 
heart, and waited and hungered and starved. The tide of 
death never stopped. It was as fine a specimen of English he- 
roism as ever blossomed under any sky. Havelock had a hard 
struggle. He knew the Indian methods well. But at last his 
guns were heard. The city lay between him and the Residency. 
He was in the rear of the assailants, who were now needed to 
protect themselves. After desperate fighting, he reached the 
Residency, only to be himself beleagued for nearly two months 
— from September 25 to November 17 — when the besiegers were 
finally defeated by Sir Colin Campbell. Lucknow was now safe. 
The gateway of the Residency was thrown open. Deliverance 
had come. It was a time of gladness. The battle for all India 
had been fought and won. 

I went to the great gateway of the Residency, and examined 
it minutely. It is surprising that the gate did not give way 
during the siege. It was beaten by the tempest of shot, and 
yet had stood. The bloody siege lasted four long months, or 
from July 2d to November 17th. The strange thing is, that 
any one was left to tell the story of the sufferings of the thou- 



600 ' INDIKA. 

sand who first went into the pen in the early summer. The 
beautiful cemetery, with its hundreds of loving and tender in- 
scriptions to men, women, and children, tells the rest of the story. 

I climbed to the top of the high tower. It has two landings, 
and one gets from each a gqod view of the surrounding country. 
As I reached the upper one, and looked out upon the peaceful 
paradise of to-day, I found that a Scotch Highlander had pre- 
ceded me to the lookout. He was a stalwart young soldier 
with kilt, tassels, and bright uniform, and was gazing upon the 
picturesque ruins and flowering plants and graceful palms, just 
below us, and out upon the city, and the distant palaces up the 
river. I could not see any trace of joy in his face. He was 
silent, and wore an expression which denoted intense feeling of 
not the most agreeable kind. The following was the substance 
of our interview : 

" Beautiful scene, this," I remarked. 

" Yes, it looks well enough." 

" Those were desperate days which the brave English people 
spent in this Kesidency here," I rejoined. 

" Yes, that they were, and the rebels got well paid," he answered. 

" Of course, you were quite too young to know anything 
about it all." 

" Yes. I know nothing of it from memory, but the wretches 
killed my father," he answered with a bitter emphasis. " They 
got well paid for it, afterwards. The men who did it got killed 
themselves." 

" Then," I answered, " you have sad reason to remember this 
place ; I am sorry it has such associations for you." 

The young man relapsed into profound silence. His face be- 
came overspread with rage. He walked some time about the 
parapet, studied the topography of the place with great care, 
and then slowly took his way down the steps. He was entirely 
alone. He represents a class. Probably born in India about 
the time of the mutiny, he was taken to Scotland by friends, 
where he was educated, and later joined the East-India service, 
and now, for the first time, had a little furlough, which he was 
using to visit Lucknow and view the scenes which told him of 
his slaughtered father before he knew a father's worth. When 
the opportunity came for the sweet revenge no time was lost in 
embracing it. 



MEMORIALS OF THE MUTINY. 601 

There is a large garden, called Sikandra Bagh, in another part 
of the city, which had once belonged to an Indian princess. It is 
a square, of one hundred and twenty yards in extent. It is sur- 
rounded by a high wall. When Campbell met Havelock, and Out- 
ram was finishing the siege, it was now in order for the sepoys to 
seek shelter. A body of them looked upon this place as an excel- 
lent defence, and rushed through the broad portal, and entered it 
to the number of sixteen hundred and forty-three. When they 
tried to close the gate they could not do it. Four of the soldiers 
who were pursuing them, two Scotchmen and two Panjabi na- 
tives, followed so closely upon their heels that they stopped the 
shutting of the gates by almost superhuman strength. With 
their own bodies, well braced, they prevented it. But two were 
shot dead. The other two stood there, and were fairly crushed, 
but the bullets spared them. Just then the column in pursuit 
arrived. The sepoys saw their danger. It was now their turn 
to be in a pen. The wall was so high, and without a single 
aperture save the front entrance, that not one could get over 
it. The sepoys were face to face with the people whose 
countrymen, and even kinsmen, had been slaughtered by them. 
The tragedy was quickly enacted. Never were British soldiers 
hotter for blood. The sepoys were helpless. Every one of the 
sixteen hundred and forty-three sepoys was bayoneted on the spot. 

I have no doubt that the father of the young Highlander whom 
I had seen on the tower of the Eesidency belonged to the Ninety- 
third Highlanders, who, with the Fifty-third Highlanders and 
the Fourth Panjabi Eifies, did this terrible work. The father 
had probably been killed in the early part of the conflict. But 
he and all his companions in death were now avenged. 

I made the complete circuit of this pen of death. For an hour 
it must have been a pandemonium of bloodshed. The sepoys 
could only meet their fate without a blow. They surrendered 
to the cold steel of the Anglo-Saxon. 

The associations of this awful place have been of such tragical 
character that at no time, since every foot of ground within the 
wall was drenched with blood, has there been any attempt to 
beautify it. Once a beautiful garden, smiling with the rarest 
and most fragrant plants, it is now a neglected place. Some 
parts of it have grown into mere jungle, with here and there an 
irregular mound, where the dead were tossed into rude pits. 



602 INDIKA. 

Only this act of clemency was done as a precaution against pes- 
tilence. Probably this spot will be the last, of all the historical 
localities about Lucknow, to be graded again, and cultivated, 
and the great wall torn down, and become a fragrant garden or 
the site of a public building. As to a residence, I doubt if an 
Englishman in all India would consent to live upon it. 

The Alam Bagh is a beautiful retreat, of five hundred square 
yards in area, about four miles from Lucknow. It is enclosed 
by a high wall. In the centre is a building, which, with the 
surrounding grounds, had once belonged to the Wajid Ali, who 
gave it as a home for one of his favorite wives. This place is 
beside the road leading from Cawnpore to Lucknow, and in the 
mutiny proved an important strategic point. The work of get- 
ting to Lucknow at all was Havelock's path to immortality, and 
when the Alam Bagh was reached his fame was complete. He 
died a few days after the relief of those who survived their four 
months' starvation and bereavement in the Kesidency. Yery 
properly, the Alam Bagh has been chosen as Havelock's resting- 
place. His tomb, an obelisk thirty feet high, is here, amid the 
flowers. The inscription was written by his wife : 

" Here rest the mortal remains of 

HENRY HAVELOCK, 

Major-General in the British Army, 

Knight Commander of the Bath, 

Who died at Dilkusha, Laknau, of dysentery, 

Produced by the hardships of a campaign 

In which he achieved immortal fame, 

On the 24th of November, 1857. 

He was born on the 5th of April, 1795, 

At Bishop Wearmouth, County Durham, England; 

Entered the Army in 1815 ; 

Came to India in 1823, 

And served there, with little interruption, 

Until his death." 

" His ashes in a peaceful urn shall rest, 

His name a great example stands, to show 
How strangely high endeavors may be blessed 
When piety and valour jointly go." 

"This monument is erected by 
His mourning widow and family." 



MEMORIALS OF THE MUTINY. 603 

This inscription tells only the general facts. There lies back of 
it a world of prejudice and opposition to Havelock. No man had 
been more thoroughly misrepresented than he. He was a Chris- 
tian, and was so known throughout the army. This, perhaps, 
more than any other characteristic of the man, had made him 
an object of aversion to the military class in India. The preju- 
dice was not without its effect in the distribution of troops. It 
was not designed that Havelock should have command of the 
troops in North India during the mutiny. He was out of the 
country at the time, in Persia, but he was needed. He came 
down the Persian Gulf to Bombay. When he reached there 
he was too ill to walk without help. The Rev. Dr. A. G. Frazer 
took him in his arms, and placed him in the small boat which 
bore him ashore. When he went north he met with nothing 
but opposition. When he entered upon the campaign, a poor 
invalid, who had spent his time in obscure stations, he was made 
a target of universal criticism. He knew the native movements 
well, and adapted himself to their habits. Hence, in making 
his advance, he moved ahead in the daytime, and in the night 
fell back a little. His progress was necessarily very .slow, but 
he always kept the ground to which he fell back. That was 
the beginning of an advance from which there was no retreat. 
He knew what he was about. But no one else did. General 
Neill wrote most complaining, and even uncomplimentary, let- 
ters to him, and declared the folly of such a campaign. But 
Havelock was firm in his plans and work. He surprised both 
his enemies and friends. When he reached the Alam Bagh, 
outside of Lucknow, the day was fully won. His triumph placed 
him at the head of the leadership of India. For the combina- 
tion of a far vision, sublime trust in God, and steady nerve while 
in great bodily suffering, the annals of warfare furnish hardly 
a parallel to Henry Havelock. 



CHAPTER LXVIII. 

A NATIVE PUBLISHING-HOUSE. 

The natives of India are rapidly adopting "Western methods. 
In no respect is that fact more apparent than in the publication 
of books and serials. From the time when Carey landed in Cal- 
cutta, in the last decade of the eighteenth century, and set up 
his printing-press in the little Danish suburb of Serampore, down 
to the present year, no Christian missionary has exhibited more 
energy and thrift than the Mohammedan and Hindu natives are 
now display ing in the distribution of their own literature. The most 
notable centre of this literary distribution which I found in India 
is the great publishing-house of JNewal Kishore (the Son of a Wea- 
sel) in Lucknow. This city, one of the largest in India, is well 
situated as a distributing centre, not only for the whole valley 
of the Ganges, but for the entire Indian peninsula. JSTewal Ki- 
shore is, first of all, a school-book publisher. He seems to have 
the favor of the British government to a remarkable degree, and 
fills contracts for supplying books in the Indian tongues to 
schools in large portions of the Panjab. He is a Hindu, and 
makes no secret of it. But, with the publisher's instinct, he keeps 
his religion in the background. He never puts his faith at the 
top of his bill-heads. He is a broad man — broad in everything 
except Christianity, and it is not likely that the gospel has a 
more vigorous hater in the whole Gangetic valley than this wily 
man. But he is no bigotefl professional. Bitter hater as he is 
of Mohammedanism, he seems as ready to publish books for the 
promotion of Islam as to issue apologies and text-books in be- 
half of Hinduism. Far be it from him to discriminate between 
the Quran and the Hamayana. As to language, he likes the 
Urdu quite as well as the tongue of his fathers. 

I had the opportunity to visit this establishment and closely 
inspect every part of it. It is not venturing much to say that, 
for variety of work, it is without a parallel in bibliographical his- 



A NATIVE PUBLISHING-HOUSE. . (305 

tory. My guide, who was furnished by the house, kept nothing 
back, either as to the departments of publishing or the modes 
of operation. All questions were promptly answered by him. 

The Kishore publishing-house is situated on the Hazrat Gunge, 
the main street of the English quarter of Lucknow. The build- 
ings are numerous, but low, mostly of one story, after the native 
fashion, and exceedingly plain. Many of them are mere sheds, 
where the work is done in full view from others on the premises. 
The roofs are of brick tiling. These buildings cover a great space, 
which is divided into many alleys and nondescript passageways, 
running at all angles with each other, and describing such curves 
as one can find in the denser parts of Liibeck or Nuremberg. 
I entered the premises by a long lane running at right angles 
from the main street. No one in passing along the street would 
suspect, unless he should turn into the lane, the number of men 
hard at work at the farther end, or the wonderful magnitude 
of their operations. The orders are constantly coming in from 
all India, and even from Afghanistan, Arabia, and Turkey in 
Europe. The many people engaged in carrying on this business 
have all they can do to fill the orders, and prepare for new ones 
on the way. Were the buildings covering such an area as this 
in Europe, and four or five stories high, yet turning out no more 
work than these primitive huts and sheds, their value could not 
be less than a half-million dollars. But the Rev. Dr. B. H. Bad- 
ley, who has been kind enough to supplement by correspondence 
the notes which I made on the spot, informs me that, in Luck- 
now value, those many buildings and the ground covered by 
them would not sell for more than about forty thousand dollars. 
Not the least effort is made at ornamentation. The contrast 
between the beautiful premises of the Brockhaus establishment 
in Leipzig and that of Newal Kishore in Lucknow marks all the 
long distance between the "godly cleanliness" of Christianity 
and the dirt of Hinduism. One gets bewildered at what he sees. 
The huts have no wooden floors. Mother Earth is the common 
resting-place. I saw T no woman's face ; for, be it remembered, 
these are Hindu premises, and the women are at home and out 
of sight. The men and boys, in great numbers, sit on the earthen 
floor, in all possible postures, and carry on their work. They 
set type, read proof, and bind the sheets while sitting squat on 
the ground. 



606 INDIRA. 

There is a great disproportion between the amount of type 
and the volume printed. While there is an immense quantity 
of type used in Kishore's house, the lithographing of a whole 
book is a favorite procedure. I have a copy of the Quran, bought 
on the premises, which is one foot long and eight inches broad, 
and I am quite sure that not a type was used in the printing of 
it. The plates are lithographs, and of excellent finish. As this 
particular volume was intended to be illustrated in colors, the 
difficulty was to supply the cuts. This, of course, could have 
been met by a separate impression. But that is not Kishore's 
method. All these blanks are filled by colored illustrations ap- 
plied by hand. These are quite rudely done, and yet the pict- 
ures are striking, and to an Oriental eye must be attractive. 
The Quran which I bought has three hundred and seventeen 
pages, with numerous manual illustrations. It is bound in full 
leather. The price was only two dollars and a half. 

But while a large portion of the work in this Hindu publish- 
ing-house is done upon stone instead of type, there is also an 
immense amount of the usual typesetting and casting. The 
Arabic and some of the Hindu tongues are very favorable for 
being etched on stone. The whole alphabet, in several cases, con- 
sists of curves, which can be easily executed by sharp tools. But 
when it comes to the Roman letters — and Kishore has his abun- 
dant uses for printing even English books— this shrewd pub- 
lisher uses type, and his capable artisans know how to prepare 
plates from it quite as well as the English or American stereo- 
typers. 

" There are several press-rooms. In one of them I counted 
twenty-one presses, all worked by hand. It was almost impos- 
sible to turn round in this crowded, stifling place. But each 
man knew his place and his work, and perfect order prevailed. 
There is one department where engraving alone is carried on. 
This is on both stone and hard wood. The etching - stone is 
brought from Germany, is precisely the same as that used by 
the Leipzig engravers, and is constantly imported in large quan- 
tities. 

Nothing, however, is imported which can be produced in India. 
One would suppose that it would be safer and better to get the 
type from London. But Kishore has caught the trick of cast- 
ing his own type, and here, in a special building, is the foundry 



A NATIVE PUBLISHING-HOUSE. 



607 



where all his type is cast. One thing greatly surprised me — the 
absence of power-presses. The presses are all of English make, 
but down to 1884 they were still of primitive contrivance. I 
imagine that the cheapness of labor is the real solution of the 
question. In Lucknow skilled labor can be secured for about 
twenty cents a day. Book-binders get two dollars a month. 
Compositors in Lucknow work for from two to live dollars a 
month. Where such a state of things exists there is little mo- 
tive for labor-saving machinery. But Kishore has recently made 
a new departure in the matter of power-presses, by getting a fine 
supply from England. 

Much of the work in even the literary department of the 
Newal Kishore house is done 
on the premises. The only 
parallel to it I had ever seen 
was the Abbe Migne's estab- 
lishment in Paris, where even 
the editors of the complete 
editions of the Fathers pre- 
pared all their matter beneath 
the same roof under which 
the compositors did their 
work, the pressmen completed 
it, and the packers sent off the 
great folios into every land. 
The only building in Kishore's 
house through which I was 
conducted that had a second 
story was the literary workshop, 
stairway leading up from the outside, I found a group of quiet, 
grave, and steady workers. They were the editors and revisers. 
They, like all Indians, sat upon the floor, and I must confess that 
they were the most dignified squatters whom it has ever been 
my privilege to meet. 

The storerooms are one of the marvels in the Kishore house. 
The books are laid away in sheets in such vast masses that they 
occupy entire buildings, and reach from the floor to the rafters. 
These magazines are so closely packed that it was difficult to 
make my way through the catacomb. Neat placing there was 
none. The arrangement of the stock violated all the geometrical 




AN INDIAN ARTIST. 



Here, by a not over -secure 



608 INDIKA. 

lines, and the dust was everywhere. Much of the matter was 
soiled, and many a spoiled sheet lay in the passageways, owing 
to careless packing. There is a great waste in this whole de- 
partment. Too many copies are printed at once, for many of 
them have been lying, as I was told by my attendant, whole 
years in the same place. For these there had been a slow sale, 
or none at all. This is the department of a publisher's disap- 
pointments. But the work of superfluity seems still to be going 
on. Great masses of fresh sheets are constantly piled up, the 
new beside the old. Much of this stock is unsafe. There is no 
weather-boarding to the magazines, and the dampness, during 
the summer monsoons, must be fatal to a great deal of it. But 
the worst enemies of books in India are the white ants. They 
burrow during all seasons, and there is nothing which to these 
industrious parasites is more toothsome than printed paper. 

The paper used by Kishore was formerly brought in great 
quantities from Serampore. But, latterly, paper-mills have been 
started in Lucknow, so that the Serampore ware is ho longer in 
use. Nearly all the paper is slightly yellow, and is no doubt 
made of straw and rags. It is very tough, though not pleasing 
to the eye or agreeable to the touch. 

In addition to Kishore' s publications in books and pamphlets, 
I must not forget that Jae also supplies the natives with a daily 
paper. This is only one department of his house, and has its 
own set of compositors, pressmen, and editors. It is an easy- 
going affair, but pays well. If it did not, this astute provider 
of intellectual pabulum would drop it in an hour's time. 

The kinds of books produced in this conglomerate establish- 
ment, in the heart of Mohammedan and Hindu India, are such 
as the millions demand. Just as I was. making preparations for 
the translation of Kishore's Hindi catalogue into English, which 
I found some hesitation on the part of my attendant to furnish 
me with, I secured one in English, through the courtesy of the 
Eev. Dr. Badley. This, I believe, is the first time Kishore has 
given full publicity to the Anglo-Indian world of the issues from 
his press. And a mammoth affair it is, for it is a catalogue of 
about twenty-five hundred works, all issued from these low sheds. 
It is in large octavo, and occupies eighty-eight pages in titles 
alone, and twenty pages in a minute alphabetical index. While 
the typography is not a model of the printer's art, the arrange- 



A NATIVE PUBLISHING-HOUSE. 609 

ment and general character of the work make a thorough cata- 
logue, which compares not unfavorably with that of Thacker, 
Spink, & Co., of Calcutta and Bombay, who stand at the head of 
the English book-trade of India. The scope of the issues is broad, 
including religious, educational, scientific, and legal books. The 
chief languages in which they are published are Sanskrit, Per- 
sian, Arabic, Urdu, Brij Bhasha, and English. But in addition 
to these must come many books in the subsidiary dialects. 

]STo one can find fault with the price. Taking the Quran as 
an illustration, I find the editions of so varied a character that 
they range in price, calculated in American currency, from 
twenty-four cents to ten dollars. But then the shrewd Kishore 
has also adopted the Bible Society's method of publishing in 
parts. The whole Quran is divided into five sections, and four 
of them are sold at four and a half cents apiece, while the fifth 
is furnished at nine cents. The catalogue is careful to state in 
every case where the work is in the course of study in the gov- 
ernment schools. 

This last mention is an excellent advertising dodge. It is as 
much as to say : " See here. The English conquered us. They 
have given us great schools, and pay for their support out of 
the general treasury. But though our conquerors, they depend 
on us for supplying them with books. .Now here are a great 
many which they use. I supply them to the schools. If such 
is the case, they must be very valuable. They would never 
have gotten in except by their worth. The English would have 
preferred their own books, but could not help themselves. Ergo, 
scatter these books everywhere. They go into the schools any- 
how, but everybody ought to buy them." This, of course, is a 
very powerful argument, which,, in the eloquent lips of a voluble 
colporteur at a mela, where fifty thousand natives may be present, 
must have an overpowering effect. 

The English department of the catalogue is most interesting. 
There are thirty titles. There is no qualmishness as to the pro- 
priety of certain kinds of books. Anything goes down Newal 
Kishore's throat, if only it will bring money into his pocket. 
He publishes an " Imperial Fortune-Teller," but lest his patrons 
might think this a piece of Hindu superstition, he tells them 
this is only a translation into English from the German. He 
publishes tales in English from the Persian and other sources ; 
39 



610 INDIKA. 

the " Arabian Nights, 1 ' in parts, and also complete ; English 
Primers (four cents apiece), Spelling-Books, Grammars (eight 
cents apiece), Letter Writers, Geographies, Cist's " History of 
India," Histories of Kashmir and Lucknow, School Dictionaries, 
an Almanac (four and a half cents a copy), and as a bit of choice 
patriotism, though nothing serious is meant by it, except to help 
the government use of Kishore's wares, Johnston's chromo-litho- 
graph of her Majesty reviewing the Scotch Volunteers. As the 
Scotch were the people who, combined with Havelock's intre- 
pidity, saved India to England by raising the siege of Lucknow, 
there is a special significance in this precious bit of stained paper, 
wmich one can buy for thirty cents. 

Kishore is a competitor of the English type-founders. For, 
besides the use he makes of his own type, he manufactures San- 
skrit and Nagri type for sale. Bookwork and miscellaneous 
printing are done by his presses, in addition to the issues on his 
own catalogue. On all cash payments for purchases of fifty 
rupees (twenty dollars) and upward, to one hundred rupees, he 
makes a discount of five per cent., and on purchases above one 
hundred rupees he raises his discount to ten per cent. In both 
cases he makes the transportation gratuitous. He expects par- 
ties who have no accounts to enclose stamps for replies. This 
enterprising publisher also makes public an offer to fill orders 
for goods of any kind which are for sale in Lucknow, and which 
he promptly despatches. 

The number of men employed as pressmen, binders, messen- 
gers, bookkeepers, clerks, and in all other departments on the 
ground, is about twelve hundred. It is a great beehive, and yet 
everything moves on quietly. Evidently there are strict orders 
against all noisiness and wrangling, which one expects to find 
everywhere m India. 

An important question is, how are these many publications to 
be brought before the public ? The book-store, in the European 
or American sense, does not exist among the natives of India. 
The larger places have English shops, which receive the issues 
of the English press very promptly, and where orders are exe- 
cuted immediately. It seemed to me, however, that an undue 
advance was made on the London list prices, in view of the close 
connection by steamer between England and India. A package 
sent from London need not be rehandled until the Peninsular 



A NATIVE PUBLISHING-HOUSE. 611 

and Oriental steamer drops anchor in sight of the Malabar Road, 
in the Bombay crescent. But the English book-shop is alto- 
gether apart from the native stall. The Anglo-Indian does not 
care to handle the native books.^ He knows very well that his 
English is going to rule the world, and that in due time many 
of the dialects of India, and later the very languages, are going 
into oblivion before the triumphant march of the English tongue. 

Now, the typical native book-shop is a booth in the bazar. 
It contains many elementary books, and some of the more ad- 
vanced literature. But the premises are small, and usually con- 
fined to one room, a mere stall. The practical way by which 
the native publisher, like Kishore, gets his publications before 
the public, and secures a large sale, is by the system of colport- 
age. The drummers circulate through the country very indus- 
triously, and know just where to go in order to secure the largest 
and best patronage. They are very quiet in their methods. 
"What successful book-agent the world over does not know that 
too much talking is likely to spoil a sale ? These men who rep- 
resent the Kishore house go even beyond India. They cross 
over the Khaibar Pass into Kashmir. They know all the paths 
of the Afghan Mountains. They go down the northern slopes 
of the Himalayas, and thread the vales of Tibet. They gravi- 
tate down into the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates, and ply 
up and down the Persian Gulf. They are as much at home in 
Persian Teheran as in English Lucknow. They have even gone 
beyond the Asiatic limits, into Europe and Africa. In Cairo 
they are at home, while Constantinople gives them no scanty 
orders. The American drummer for the large houses of New 
York and Boston would have much to learn from the book dis- 
tributors of Kishore, who knows his men, and keeps a careful 
lookout on each man's account. 

There is broad significance in the efforts of Newal Kishore to 
propagate Hindu literature. He wants to control all markets 
not Christian. Were there no money in the business, he would 
immediately set his twelve hundred people adrift. 



CHAPTER LXIX. 

THE CURRENT LITERATURE OF INDIA. 

The growth of the indigenous literature is commensurate with 
the progress of education. The educated Hindu rushes easily 
into print. He enjoj^s nothing more than the effect of his 
thought on others. The issues of the Indian press show an an- 
nual total of about nine thousand publications.* 

There are published in India 600 newspapers, 200 of which, 
mostly dailies, are in the Indian vernaculars, f 

Bengal is, naturally, more prolific in literature than any other 
province. The capital, Calcutta, is the political centre. But 
there is more general intellectual activity there than in any 
other part of the Empire. The Bengali is a born writer. He 
is probably the youngest politician in the world. While yet a 
boy he begins to think on political subjects, studies English 
models, and very early gets before the world his notions as to 
how the government of India should become representative, and 
how the natives can best become factors in both legislation and 
administration. 

The languages in which the many works published in 1886 
are distributed, are as follows : 



Arabic 


German. 


Kannadu. 


Arabic-Sindhi. 


Gujerati. 


Karen. 


Assamese. 


Hebrew. 


Krukani. 


Badugu. 


Hindi. 


Kurg. 


Bengali. 


Hindu-Sindhi. 


Lankani. 


Burmese. 


Hindustani. 


Latin. 


Brij. 


Italian. 


. Malayalim. 


English. 


Kachin. 


Marhatti. 


French. 


Kanarese. 


Marvadi. 



* For minute literary tables, see Appendix No. VIII. Trebes is an excellent, 
perhaps the best, authority on Indian literature in its several historical stages. 
See his editions of Mann & Zacharise, London, 1878, p. 179 et al. 

t Lethbridge, " History of India," p. 119. 



THE CURRENT LITERATURE OF INDIA. 615 



Nepalese. 


Prakrit. 


Telugu. 


Pali. 


Sanskrit. 


Tulu. 


Panjabi. 


Santali. 


Turkish 


Pashto. 


Sindhi. 


Uria. 


Persian. 


Tamil. 


Zend. 



The variety of subjects treated in Indian literature is astound- 
ing. It reflects not only the polyglot character of the race-stems, 
but also the mixture of faiths. Among the books issued in 1882, 
in the Panjab, we find such a heterogeneous compound as the 
following: "The Little Office of the Immaculate Conception of 
the Blessed Yirgin ;" " Praises of Mohammed by his Followers ;" 
" Attacks on the Prophet by the Christians ;" " Stories of Krish- 
na," and " Talismans from the Quran." In the same region, the 
Northwest Provinces, there is one treatise on astrology and 
another on electroplating. In Burma the list of books includes a 
volume of songs in praise of the New Umbrella for the Dasgen Pa- 
goda. In the Central Provinces a collection of astronomical cal- 
culations was published, in an edition of five hundred copies. The 
Bengali publications comprise works on polygamy, the Brahmo 
discourses, and songs on the loves of Krishna. In Southern India 
a book in Kanarese has been published, in an edition of four thou- 
sand five hundred copies, reciting stories of Kama, Sita, and the 
G-opis. A gratuitous edition of one thousand and fifty copies of a 
work on astrology, in the Tamil, appears on the list of issues for 
1882. Several other books on the subject are published,for general 
sale, among them one in an edition of four hundred copies. The 
latter is claimed to be an ancient work, two thousand years old. 

Another Tamil work denounces Christianity, animal food, and 
intoxicating drinks. An edition of five hundred copies of this 
book appeared in 1882. In the same language appear two other 
works, of antagonistic tendencies — one a book of verses in favor 
of the Yirgin Mary, and another a prose tale of a demon with 
a thousand heads. From the multitude of topics we may name : 
" Prayers to the Jain Saints ;" " Exposure of Jugglers' Tricks ;" 
" Seven Ways of Reading the Quran ;" the " Zoroastrian Script- 
ures ;" " Genealogy of Brahman Families ;" the " Mirror of 
Health ;" a " Tract against Swindlers ;" and a drama satirizing 
the tea-planters of Assam.* 

* W. E. A. A., article in Calcutta Review (1875) on the " Native Literature of 
Modern India." See Triibner. Amer. and Orient. Lit. Record, 1875. 



616 INDIRA. 

Among the works published in the year 1886 are the follow- 
ing : a book on Architecture, containing notes on the lucky and 
unlucky times for beginning a building ; a " Biography of Fara- 
day ;" adaptations of Shakespeare's " Comedy of Errors," " Win- 
ter's Tale," and "Merchant of Venice ;" Milton's "Paradise 
Lost ;" " The Diseases of the Elephant ;" " Cholera and its Cure ;" 
a Marhatti version of Goldsmith's "Hermit;" the "Perils of 
Youth " — a work telling young men not to run off to Christian- 
ity or any other religion before examining their own ; annotated 
editions of Goldsmith's comedies, "The Good- Matured Man" 
and " She Stoops to Conquer." There is a large increase of im- 
portant missionary publications ; of works by the Hindu reforma- 
tory associations, and of native attacks on infant marriages and 
other liugering abuses. Another important triumph must be 
added to the long catalogue of philological achievements of mis- 
sionaries. In Bhamo, Burma, a " Kachin Spelling-Book" has 
been published by two missionaries. It is the first attempt to 
reduce the savage Kachin dialect to grammar. 

A glance over the titles of the great mass of the native pub- 
lications is sufficient to reveal the want of a practical character 
in the larger part of them. Ram Chandra Bose, an excellent 
judge of his own people, says of them : " The Hindus are the 
most dreamy people on the surface of the globe ; and the litera- 
ture of no other country as great as theirs confessedly is, appears 
at first sight so full of day dreams. The Hindu geographer does 
not travel, does not explore, does not survey; he simply sits 
down, and, perhaps under the influence of an extra dose of ' the 
exhilarating soma-juice,' dreams of a central mountain of height 
greater than that of the sun, moon, and stars, and circular oceans 
of curd and clarified butter. The Hindu historian does not ex- 
amine documents, coins, and monuments, does not investigate 
historical facts, weigh evidence, balance probabilities, scatter the 
chaff to the winds and gather the wheat in his garner ; he simply 
sits down and dreams of a monster monkey who flies through 
the atmosphere with huge mountains resting on the hairs of his 
body, and constructs thereby a durable bridge across an arm of 
interminable ocean. The Hindu biographer ignores the separat- 
ing line between history and fable, invents prodigious and fan- 
tastic stories, and converts mere historical personages into myth- 
ical or fabulous heroes. The Hindu anatomist does not dissect, 



THE CURRENT LITERATURE OF INDIA. 617 

does not examine the contents of the human body ; he simply 
dreams of component parts which have no existence, multiplies 
almost indefinitely the number of arteries and veins, and speaks 
coolly of a passage through which ' the atomic soul ' effects its 
ingress and egress. The Hindu scientists in general set aside 
both inductive and deductive processes, and present their clay 
dreams and nightmares as facts of accurate knowledge." 

India is, however, rapidly arousing to the correction of her own 
errors. Take Hindu astrology as an illustration. This absurdity 
still holds many millions of Hindus in its strong arms. The 
sacred writings contain enough to make the people believe any 
nonsense. For example : " Krishna was born when the moon 
was in the Robini group of stars, and Krishna put his uncle to 
death. Therefore, whoever is born when the moon is so situated 
must be very unfavorable to his uncle." The entire life of the 
average Hindu is based on astrological assumptions. " Every 
act, every duty, through the entire round of domestic, social, 
mental, and moral life, whether employing a barber or entering 
into matrimony, must be explained and interpreted and engaged 
in by the aid of the astrologer. This is the tyranny of false- 
hood."* 

A native author, Sir Madava Rao, has written a work in refu- 
tation of this nonsense, and challenges any one to produce a 
single illustration of astrological verity. Others will follow, 
in due time, in his footsteps. 

We must not forget that the better style and quality of native 
publications, whether original or reprints, are gradually gaining 
the ascendency in every department. As examples we may 
mention the recent issue of Pope's " Essay on Man," an adapta- 
tion in Bengali ; " Gil Bias," in Marhatti ; and Shakespeare's 
" Julius Caesar," in Marhatti. f 

Many of the native publications classed as religious are purely 
controversial. They are attacks on Christianity. Both Hindus 
and Mohammedans are quite -willing to attack Christianity in 
print. From the first, missionaries have indulged pretty freely 
in controversy. This spirit has been latterly on the decline, as 

* The India Witness, Nov., 1887. 

t The Missionary Conference : " South India and Ceylon," 1879, vol. ii. pp. 
377 ff. A bibliography of Christian publications in the various missionary 
fields would be an important contribution to the history of general literature. 



618 INDIRA. 

if the missionaries were now thinking the game hardly worth 
the chase. In some sections Hindus and Mohammedans have 
taken up the cudgel against one another. On the other hand, 
controversial works have been written, in a very hostile spirit, by 
rival sects within the same religious fold. 

The languages in which the natives and missionaries produce 
their books and serials are determined by the territory. In the 
Northwestern Provinces the books are mostly in Persian, Urdu, 
Sanskrit, Hindi, and Arabic. In Bengal the native books are 
for the most part in Bengali and Hindustani. In Madras the 
Tamil, Sanskrit, Telugu, Malay alim, Kanarese, Persian, and Urdu 
prevail. In Bombay the mixture is even greater : Urdu, Per- 
sian, Arabic, Gujerati, Sanskrit, Marhatti, Kanarese, Sindhi, Pah- 
lavi, and Zend. 

One of the long -overlooked facts in Indian history is now 
coming to the light — the large place which woman has had in 
the development of a native literature. She has made for herself 
as large a place, in view of her depression, in Indian letters as in 
that of any Occidental country. Ahulya, Tara, Mandadari, Lita, 
Kunti, and Draupadi are as familiar in certain Indian circles as 
Olympia Morata, Eenata of Este, George Eliot, and Elizabeth 
Barrett Browning are to intelligent people in England and 
America.* 



* Calcutta Review, vol. xlviii. pp. 32 ff. ; 91 ff. 



CHAPTER LXX. 

CHRISTIAN LITERATURE IN INDIA. 

There has never been any timidity on the part of the Protes- 
tant missionaries in India in dealing with either the polytheistic 
faiths or the imported scepticism. The two great systems to 
be attacked are Mohammedanism and Hinduism. The Moham- 
medans, without having their ancient zeal and courage in propa- 
gating their opinions, are nevertheless ardently attached to them. 
They are never successful advocates of their tenets when they 
cannot use the sword. As this power is denied them in India, 
they are poor propagandists. Outwardly, they imitate their 
more liberal brethren in Egypt and Turkey, and even eat with 
Christians. The ordinary Mohammedan in India has borrowed 
from the Hindu the exclusiveness of the caste system, but it is a 
hopeful sign of the times that many of the more educated young 
Mohammedans are throwing away their scruples in this respect. 
In "some places they even go further, and disregard the most 
positive rules of their religion by eating and drinking things for- 
bidden alike to both Jew and Mohammedan. It is said that 
pork appears on the tables of some advanced members of the 
communhVv, but when offered to guests offence is avoided by 
calling it " Chinese goat-meat." 

The Mohammedans are beginning to take advantage of the 
schools, and print their full share of books and read the papers. 
But it must be admitted that no large class of indifferents has 
come into existence as yet. With people of such firm convic- 
tions no change can be expected in a few decades. But there 
are indications that point to more liberal ideas than have hith- 
erto obtained. The Mohammedans of India are still smarting 
under the defeat in the mutiny of 1857., They are the conquered 
faith and people, and it cannot be expected that they should im- 
bibe an earty fondness for the ideas of their conquerors." But 

* Temple, " India in 1880," p. 130. 



620 INDIRA. 

the missionaries have watchful eyes. Their presses are going 
night and day. Their operations are constantly enlarging. They 
know every antagonistic literary force, and measure it at its full 
value. 

The first language of India in which Christian thought was 
expressed was the Tamil, the earliest cultivated of all the Dra- 
vidian idioms. This was the "Doctrina Christiana" of Giovanni 
Gonsalvez, who first cast Tamil characters in 1577. But the 
real beginning of the vast Christian literature which has been 
produced in India was with the productions of Ziegenbalg's 
press, about 1711. The first edition of the Scriptures, in any 
Indian tongue, was his Tamil version of the New Testament in 
1715. The Old Testament followed in 1728. Between the first 
printed sheet of Ziegenbalg's little hand-press and the present 
works which come from the power-presses of the missions in 
Calcutta, there lies a wealth of Christian literature which no 
one can estimate. 

As an illustration of the general missionary activity in pub- 
lishing, we may say that in one year (1887) one mission, that 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, published in Madras, under 
the charge of Rev. A. W. Rudisill, D.D., 500,000 pages of Tamil 
Christian literature. In Bengal alone, 10,000,000 tracts have 
been distributed since Carey, Marshman, and Ward began their 
work in 1800. During the last ten years, 10,000,000 copies of 
Christian publications in the vernaculars have been circulated in 
South India. The Madras Religious Tract and Book Society 
printed 7,500,000 publications in the native tongues, and in the 
last nine years it has printed 7,750,000 copies. One million copies 
have been printed by the Bangalore Tract Society in the last ten 
years. From 1838 to 1868 the three Tract Societies of Madras, 
Calcutta, and Bombay circulated nearly 10,000,000 copies of pub- 
lications. 

The Madras Auxiliary Bible Society has circulated, either in 
whole or part, 3,000,000 copies of the Scriptures. Down to 1874 
the British and Foreign Bible Society had printed in Hindi and 
Urdu alone nearly 1,200,000 copies of the Bible. In 1870 the 
total of separate Christian publications in the various vernacu- 
lars of India and Ceylon amounted to nearly 4000 titles. Dr. 
James Mudge supposes that this number is now over 5000, those 
in Tamil leading with 1500 ; Hindustani (in its two branches, 



CHRISTIAN LITERATURE IN INDIA. 621 

Hindi and Urdu), 1000 ; and the other languages coming up 
to 2500.* 

In 1873 the number of mission-presses was twenty-five. The 
number now can hardly be less than sixty. During the ten pre- 
ceding years those presses had issued 3410 new works, in thirty 
languages; circulated 1,315,503 copies of the Bible, 2,375,040 
school-books, and 8750 Christian books and tracts. This would 
be an aggregate of about twelve million copies of religious books. 
Dr. Murdock, however, thinks this too small a number, and be- 
lieves that sixteen million books were printed in the decade 
closing in 1871. Dr. Mudge believes that, for the decade imme- 
diately closing, the total copies of religious publications must 
reach twenty million copies. 

"With all this great distribution of Christian literature, the 
disproportion between the circulation of books and the need of 
the people is still most alarming. Suppose the twenty millions 
of separate copies of Christian books to be now existing, and in 
one great pile, and that the two hundred and sixty millions of 
the people were to march up each to receive one, the apportion- 
ment would be only one little book for every dozen people. The 
need is terrible. The wail of the whole land is for the truth. 
The churches and societies in the Western Christian lands should 
adopt far more liberal measures to furnish India's millions with 
a sound and sufficient Christian literature. The passion for 
reading has struck every part of India. It is the universal mania. 
The people will have books and newspapers. It is for the West- 
ern Christian world to say what kind of reading it shall be. 

It is matter of grave regret that not one of the leading mis- 
sionary societies, of either Europe or America, seems to appre- 
ciate sufficiently the stupendous power of the press, and its in- 
calculable possibilities, in either India or any other great Eastern 
mission-field. Only a few of the societies make direct grants to 
this department of missionary work. The missionaries are too 
often obliged to find their own resources, which, in consequence, 
are wretchedly limited. The question of a Christian literature 
for India is not to be settled in India, but in Anglo-Saxon Chris- 
tendom. 

* Article in Independent, New York, 1886. This gentleman was formerly a 
missionary in India. 



CHAPTER LXXI. 

AGRA AND THE TAJ MAHAL. 

The Mogul palace was always built like a bird with out- 
stretched wings or a tent with outrunning side-tents, as if the 
occupants were always on the march towards grander victories. 
This fugitive character of the royal residence also applied to the 
place itself. The Mogul emperors had no permanent residence. 
No will of the people was ever consulted. The sweet humor 
of the ruler himself decided where he should live and where his 
silver-tipped minarets, golden thrones, and tombs of marble and 
countless precious stones should bewilder every eye by their 
splendor. If Shah Jahan lived in Agra, it was reason enough 
why Aurangzeb should live in Delhi. There was a general 
revolution of place. The new man made the new capital. Hence 
the Moguls had several capitals— Fathpur Sikri, Agra, Delhi, and 
Lahor ; or, as Milton puts it : 

" From the destined walls 
Of Cambalu, seat of Cathaian Can, 
And Samarchand by Oxns, Temir's throne, 
To Paquin of Sinsean kings; and thence 
To Agra and Lahor of great Mogul, 
Down to the golden Chersonese." 

I was twice in Agra, once on my way to the Panjab, in the 
Northwest, and then on my return to Bombay. These two visits 
furnished the opportunity to visit the greatest of all tombs, the 
Taj Mahal, three times, with a fortnight's interval between the 
first and last visit. If one wishes to test the quality of an archi- 
tectural monument, or any work of art, let him put a little time 
between his visits and see what the hours have to say. If there 
is a sense of monotony or familiarity, he may be sure there is 
something wanting in the object itself. But if at each visit he 
sees it in a new light, if it bears a different message back to him, 




PALACE IN AGRA. 



AGRA AND THE TAJ MAHAL. 625 

if he feels that something more is yet to come, and has been 
coming all the while, he may make up his mind that he is in 
the presence of a great creation. 

On my first approach to Agra I saw the Taj to the left, about 
two miles off, with the Jamna flowing between the railway and 
the matchless structure. There it stood — the greatest tomb, the 
most elaborate and minute workmanship, the most nearly perfect 
specimen of combined marbles converted into flowers and fruits 
by inlaid precious stones, in the world. But I was disappointed. 
Its four great minarets, standing out as sentinels to protect the 
nestling domes, were not equal to the hearsay and descriptions. 
But I forgot several things — that I had. been riding steadily 
for thirty-six hours, that it was early dawn, and, above all, that 
the Taj stands about twenty feet lower than the railway. With 
changed conditions one looks through different eyes. 

Shah Jahan, one of the greatest of the Mogul emperors in 
both peace and war, had a wife who was his idol. She was the 
mother of his seven children. She lived for him alone, and he 
knew it well. To please her was his one study. She died in the 
southern country, and was brought home and buried in a corner of 
a magnificent garden on the banks of the Jamna. This garden 
had been a quiet place, enclosed by a high wall, where Shah Jahan 
and his family could enjoy a little retirement from the noisy 
court in the city. On festive occasions it also served as a place 
where imperial pageants were enacted. But from the moment 
when the beautiful empress was laid to rest beneath its palms, 
and the ferns hung their long fringes about her grave, there 
must be no more joy within that wall. She had said once, per- 
haps it was only a whisper to him, that she wanted him to build 
a marble palace for her which should eclipse all others the sun 
had ever shone upon, and should immortalize her name and his 
love for her. Perhaps he meant to do it. But the impress died, 
and too soon to see her dream of fame take shape in marble. 

Yet her wish did not die. Shah Jahan, like his Mogul kind, 
resolved instantly, if he could not build a palace for her living, 
he would build a tomb for her dead. All those men sprang like 
lightning to their conclusions. They never mused, but hastened. 
All joy and song were banished from the garden. The best 
architect must be found. He came, perhaps from Italy, per- 
haps from France ; but that is a secret. His name, even, has 
40 



626 INDIRA. 

been lost, lest it might eclipse a little of the immortality of the 
dead empress. All lands must be searched for workers in stone. 
All mines must be threaded to make them yield the topaz, the 
goldstone, the amethyst, and all other precious stones which 
might give beauty and harmony to a marble surface by imbed- 
ding themselves in choice shapes, and make the marble only a 
background for pictures of broad and rich proportions. Persia 
and Kashmir must be ransacked for patterns of variety and 
beauty enough for the marble screens around the tomb. Then 
there must be no delay. Many thousands of workmen wrought 
at it, and yet, by all the quick methods known to even Indian des- 
potism, it required twenty-two years to build the tomb. There is 
no knowing how much the Taj Mahal cost, nor how many peo- 
ple wrought at it. But it is known that when it was finished, 
in 1647, the remains of the empress were taken from their rest- 
ing-place near by, and placed in the crypt in the centre of the 
building and directly beneath the dome. Immediately over the 
remains in the crypt, but on the main floor of the great mau- 
soleum, the rich ornamental tomb was constructed. Below lies 
the empress. Beside her lies the man she loved. Shah Jahan 
in the latter part of his reign was dethroned by his son, and kept 
in close confinement in the palace at the fort. Here he spent 
his last years, and as he died he had at least one last privilege — 
he could look from the spot where his couch lay, through an 
open balcony, down to the bend in the Jamna where the domes 
and minarets of the Taj Mahal lifted their marble heights in air, 
and marked the spot where the wife of his best days lay. Her 
mausoleum was the last thing he saw. 

However hard the fate a Mogul father suffered at his son's 
hands, death relaxed the stiffest grasp. Shah Jahan died a pris- 
oner to his ambitious son Aurangzeb, but no sooner was the 
breath out <*£* his body than the whole empire resounded with 
his praises. He was lauded in all proclamations, and swift mes- 
sengers must go to the ends of the earth to tell how just and 
good the prisoner had been. Then no wealth must be spared 
to make his burial grand. Shah Jahan was laid away in the 
same mausoleum with his wife. So in building her tomb it 
came about that he built also his own. And the fact remains 
that Mohammedanism, with its curse upon woman, with its long 
enslavement of her, with its millennium of polygamy, has never- 



AGRA AND THE TAJ MAHAL. 



627 



theless built to a woman the most beautiful and costly mauso- 
leum the sun has ever shone on. It is- to the empress dead. 
There would be more hope for the accursed system if it would 
only do something for the woman living. With all its millions 
for a dead woman's tomb, Mohammedanism has never yet built 
one living woman's home. 

One enters the enclosure through a great ornamental gateway. 
This of itself would be a handsome building, but it serves only 
as a poor inlet to the coming wonders. The ascent is by a stair- 




GATEWAY OF GARDEN, TAJ MAHAL. 

way to the second story, where there is a gallery. Here is the 
first good view of the Taj. Just below begins the garden, laid 
off in sixteen sections, stretching far back, and the w r hole form- 
ing a square of eight hundred and eighty feet. Each of the sec- 
tions is appointed for a distinct class of vegetation — -one for 
roses alone, another for ferns, another for palms, and then for 
other growths, until the sixteen are exhausted. Just opposite, 
as one stands on the lofty balcony of the gateway, there is seen 



628 INDIRA. 

at the farther end of the garden the Taj Mahal, resting on its 
vast marble platform of three hundred and thirteen feet square, 
and eighteen feet in height. On each side of the outer edge of 
the platform is a mosque, and at each corner rises a minaret one 
hundred and thirty-three feet high. The main dome of the mau- 
soleum, which is in the centre of the marble terrace or platform, 
is fifty-eight feet in diameter and eighty feet high. At each 
corner of the mausoleum is a smaller dome, which gives com- 
pleteness to this picture. The mausoleum itself would be a per- 
fect square of one hundred and eighty-six feet, but the corners 
are cut off. This architectural device was resorted to, no doubt, 
to prevent the harshness that would come from the rectangles, 
but also to give the opportunity for those great niches, one above 
the other, where the shadows play hide and seek the livelong 
day. Straight through the garden, all the way from the gate- 
way where one stands, to the Taj itself, there runs a stream of 
pure, clear water. This, with its twenty-three fountains and its 
central platform and fountain, gives a variety and movement to 
the whole scene, which at once take from the place all appear- 
ance of the tomb. 

Everything one sees here, where stone is used, is of pol- 
ished white marble. The bed and sides of the broad way 
down which the water runs ; the splendid terrace on which 
minarets, mosques, and the wonderful central mausoleum stand ; 
every part of the Taj itself, from the lowest step in the dark 
crypt to the topmost stone which covers the dome — it is all 
a wealth of spotless marble. One sees no wood, not even the 
precious sandal. Yet even the marble is not enough. All around 
the great central hall, beneath the immense dome, the lower 
walls are covered with rich reliefs, borrowed mostly from the 
flora that pushes itself out into numberless forms beneath this 
ever-shining sun. The lotus plays the most important part. 
Between the central hall and the main outer wall there is a 
broad way by which one goes entirety around the interior build- 
ing. The inmost sanctuary, where the two great ornamental 
tombs rest, is shut off from the external walls by a wide way, 
and then by intervening screens of finely polished marble. No 
light falls from the dome, and all the light which comes into 
the burial-place is through these screens and small openings, 
which chasten the glare, and make one feel that he is in a 



AGRA AND THE TAJ MAHAL. 629 

place where the voice should only whisper, and the feet should 
take only slow and gentle steps. There is just the measure of 
light which is needed to produce the most subdued and softened 
effect. 

So far all is marble. We have seen the rich reliefs all around 
the lower walls, where the vine and the lotus are most prominent. 

But what about all the rest ? If the whole building is of stain- 
less marble, and one can find no wood or brass, there must be a 
coldness to this picture. The way to get rid of this difficulty 
was half performed when the sharp angles were cut off. An 
abrupt line can nowhere be found. Whenever one supposes he 
would come around to something harsh, he is disappointed. The 
very spot where the abruptness would begiu has been chosen to 
prevent it. There is a curve, a fanciful turn in another direc- 
tion, a willowy drooping perhaps, anything to take away the 
keen edge of monotony and coldness. Yet even a new turn to 
things is hardly enough. This would go far ; but there must be 
something more, and richer, to ward off all possible danger. 

Here is where the coloring comes in — the letting of the choicest 
foreign stones into this bed of the purest marble. You see this 
on all the outer walls of the Taj. These stones are thrust into 
the exterior walls with such profusion, such a wealth and waste, 
that one wonders why the display. But when you come to look 
at them as a whole, and see the design, or as ladies would say, 
the " pattern," there is not one too many. You could not spare 
a single bud from a rose or a leaf from a lily. These outer mo- 
saics are all in keeping with the luxuriance of the outlying nat- 
ure. They fall in with the palm, the fig, the cypress, and the 
peepul in the garden. They are like those great roses which 
now grow all about the spot where the body of the empress 
rested through the years while her mausoleum was being built. 

But let us go within, where everything grows richer. The 
lattice of marble, which, as a wall, surrounds the two ornamental 
tombs, would be as chill as frost-work were it not for the bright- 
ening of its surface by the letting in of this world of botanic 
stones. Nothing known to the flora of Ceylon or India seems 
to have been forgotten. Those rarer plants which Baron Yan 
Reede found out and put into the twelve great folio volumes of his 
" Hortus Indus Malabaricus," are here reproduced in the stones 
of corresponding colors. Look as closely as one may, he can 



630 INDIRA. 

hardly tell where the lines between the stones are, so minute is 
the workmanship, so deft the hand. All up the walls, in all 
the recesses, over all the doors, away up the posts of the en- 
closing screen of marble, over the archway by which one enters 
to the tombs, and then all along the tombs, from top to bottom, 
there run these luxuriant mosaics, until one is fairly lost in the 
very glare of their splendor. The stones are not over-minute, 
like the Roman mosaic, nor are they too large, like the Florentine. 
They are midway, and as to color they simply reproduce faith- 
fully the wild irregularity of this wanton Indian nature. There 
is no sparing of labor. If a violet needed ten stones to give 
it the highest effect, the ten would be there. My friends, Prof. 
Foote and the Rev. Mr. Fox, and myself counted in one rose and 
its stem thirty one separate precious stones. Here was a shading 
which was marvellous. It seemed that even individual stones 
had shading, so accurate was the selection and so skilful the 
placing. But no ; the variety of color came from new stones. 
Each stone had a color of its own, and to produce another one 
there was a new stone let in. 

One gets weary in a short time, and it does not answer well 
to hurry, or to try to see much at a time. My three visits had 
been well timed. The first was in the morning, when I was 
fresh, and had read the descriptions and was ready for the origi- 
nal. I went all over the garden ; to the first tomb of the empress; 
into the crypt, and stood beside where her dust now lies; and to 
the main space where, right above the real tomb, the ornamental 
one is built. Then I wandered through the interior, and counted 
the colors of the foreign stones, and saw their fine work and 
the precious quality of the stone which was worthy of the w T ork. 
Then I climbed to the top of one of the minarets, and saw the 
Jamna below, and its long sweep into the far distance towards 
the Ganges ; and looked down upon the great marble bulb which 
goes by the name of a dome, with its little waiting domes stand- 
ing about it, and then at the garden, the gateway, and the 
mosques at either side of the marble terrace. The verdure and 
bloom of the garden contrasted wonderfully with the glare of 
the marble world. The sun was in his full splendor. There 
was not a fleck of cloud. I could not rest my eye a minute 
upon either dome or on one of the supporting minarets without 
being dazzled. So soon, however, as I looked at the garden, and 



AGRA AND THE TAJ MAHAL. 631 

then at the purple stream of water that sang its way beneath 
the palms through the whole length of the garden, my eyes were 
rested for another survey. 

My second visit to the Taj was in the twilight, when the voices 
outside were calming down, and the shadows were everywhere 
deepening. The fretted ceiling in the great exterior niches 
caught up the humors of the setting sun, and repeated them in 
their own recesses. No two were alike. There was variety 
everywhere. The interior great hall was as calm as the grave 
itself. The colors of the inlaid stone gave a friendliness and 
gentleness to the marble which made it something else than 
nature's densest frost. The long shadows of the minarets, fall- 
ing like bars of lead across the white terrace of marble, and reach- 
ing far out on the sides, gave a certain weird aspect to the whole, 
which one would little suspect until he had seen it for himself. 
The garden took on its darkest shades, for there was no moon. 

The superintendent conducted me about, and showed me now 
one object of interest and now another, which I had not seen 
before. Among other things he brought me to the oldest tree 
in the garden, which had stood there many a long year before 
Shah Jahan was born, or the father of his beautiful empress had 
set out from his Persian home to come down to India to join 
his humble fortune with the Mogul rulers of the Eastern world. 

With these two visits I expected to see no more of the Taj. 
I then went northwest into the Pan jab, but it so happened that 
I could conveniently stop on my return, and again be a guest 
at the home of Dr. and Mrs. Wilson. The bright nights of 
January were now upon us. " Would you not like to see the 
Taj by moonlight ?" said Dr. Wilson. He knew very well what 
I would say. 

The moon was at the full. The perfumes of the garden filled 
the air, and the shadows of palms and ferns gave relief to the 
pearly whiteness of the scene. The stream which flowed through 
the garden seemed of molten silver, and we walked along its 
margin, and watched the play of its little ripples with rare de- 
light. We were the only visitors, and that dead silence reigned 
which pervades all Eastern countries immediately after night- 
fall. As we walked up to the great marble terrace on which 
the Taj stands, the scene was one of indescribable grandeur. 
The view by day, wonderful as it is, is far from repeated at 



632 INDIKA. 

night. Each hour seems to have its own way of revealing the Taj. 
The dome seems higher at night, as if a part of the very firmament, 
and in living companionship with the moon and stars. The four 
slender and richly carved minarets appear as stairways up to the 
cloudy realm. The Jamna appeared of wider and swifter flow. 
Its surface was serene, and it laved either bank so gently that 
the current could hardly be heard. No insects made chorus. 
The place was in the midst of a dreadful, grand silence. 

The walls how shot out their splendor from the inlaid stones 
of varied hues and fabulous price. These many-colored stones, 
thrown into vine and fruit and flower by the artist's skill, and 
into texts from the Quran, and climbing in delicate shapes up 
and about the matchless building, fairly blazed in the white 
moonlight. At certain angles the sight was painfully dazzling. 

But within, the view was still more bewildering. The torch- 
lights shone through the marble lattice, and showed the pattern 
as the day could not. The goldstone and other precious stones, 
which ornamented the enclosure of the mausoleum, appeared 
with more distinction of color and finish of workmanship than 
at either of the other times I had seen them. It was a garden 
of cold splendor in stone. Dr. Wilson had a plan which I did 
not know before — that after we had walked around in the Taj 
awhile with torches, we should see the whole ablaze with Bengal 
lights. Suddenly they were let off, and the scene was totally 
changed. There was nothing that looked the same. That mar- 
vellous stone lattice, with its embroidery of precious stones, had 
again changed hue and effect. The walls swept on in graceful 
curves, and fairly lost themselves in the intense glow of the 
light. The marble reliefs, such as the palm and the lotus, stood 
out in such clear and shining outlines as to make one think 
for the moment that they were not supported by any back- 
ground. The dome rose above all this varied beauty in a firm 
and solid sweep, and the Bengal light threw up its force to the 
very topmost point, and illuminated every block of the spotless 
marble. 

The charm lasted quite long enough. It called one into new 
sensations. We walked out of the Taj, down the steps, through 
the garden, and under the great gateway. Soon we were out 
of reach of the perfumes and splendor of the world's greatest 
building and man's richest tribute to a woman's love and memory. 



AGRA AND THE TAJ MAHAL. 633 

While the great Taj eclipses all other buildings in Agra, and 
indeed in all India, there are other structures in that city which 
are marvels of architectural finish and magnitude. Along the 
banks of the Jamna there stretches the great fort, whose high 
and massive wall encloses the Mogul palaces and the Pearl Mosque. 
Here, in calm and safe retreat, is the palace of the emperor Ja- 
hangir, in red sandstone. Its great corridors, its magnificent 
octagonal towers, its pillared halls with stone roof, its wonder- 
ful marble baths, its vaulted chambers, its monolithic cisterns 



THE PEARL MOSQUE. 

of light porphyry, its quiet marble nooks, and its pavilions for 
outlook over the stretches of the Jamna valley, make it one of 
the most magnificent monuments of Mogul splendor. 

The Saman Burj, the palace of the empress, is concealed be- 
hind rich lattice- work in finest marble. Here is the Grape Gar- 
den, a square of two hundred and eighty feet, where the ladies 
of the court lived in all the luxuries known to the Mogul court 
in the days of its greatest splendor. Near by is the pavilion 
where Shah Jahan, a prisoner to his son, could look out, a mile 



634 



INDIKA. 



to the eastward, and see the Taj, his tribute of affection to his 
beautiful empress. The Diwan i Khass, or Audience Hall, 'near 
by, is of richest carving, where flowers in red carnelian and 
other precious stones are inlaid in finest marble. 

The Pearl Mosque, though not the largest, is perhaps the most 
beautiful in India. It is lined entirely with marble, veined with 
white, blue, and gray. At each corner there is an octagonal 
tower. In the centre of its court there is a marble tank. A 
marble cloister, supported by fifty -eight slender pillars, runs 
around three sides of the court. The central doorway is open, 
but the others are closed by screens of marble lattice-work. 

The most remarkable place in the immediate neighborhood of 
Agra is Sikandra, the burial-place of the great Akbar. The 
very gateway is a triumph of architectural skill. At each corner 
of it there rises a white minaret, sixty feet high. The tomb of 
Akbar is surrounded by others, to various members of his family. 
The whole structure above and around this imperial dust is more 
like a palace than a tomb. Corridors, pavilions, marble lattice- 
work, and all the architectural devices known to the Indian 
architects of three centuries ago, are employed to perpetuate 
the memory of the great builder of the Mogul throne. 











GOVERNOR'S RESIDENCE, FORT GEORGE, MADRAS. 



CHAPTER LXXII. 

DELHI, THE MOGUL METROPOLIS. 

Delhi is a place which requires time to see well, and a care- 
ful study to comprehend its place in Indian history. My en- 
gagements were such as to give me both these advantages. In 
the dak bungalow, or post -inn, I found comfortable quarters. 
But I was interrupted, when not engaged in seeing the city, by 
a constant throng of vendors of ivory paintings, silver-ware, and 
many other things for which Delhi has been famous from re- 
mote times. 

Then, too, there were other objects for sale, such as Kabul 
and Kashmir cloth and shawls, which were brought in great' 
packages, and strewed all over my floor. By day and by night 
these vendors gathered about me, and several times I had to 
threaten to lock them in, if they did not pick up their wares and 
be off. But they never grew impatient. Whether one buys or 
not, it is all the same ; they keep their equipoise. They watch 
your arrival at the train, and have messengers run after your 
carriage, to see where you make your lodgings. They are, 
besides, most faithful to the last. They will even follow you 
to the train, and, when you are seated in the carriage, they will 
come to the window and hold out, with reduced price, some ob- 
ject which they fancy you may be inclined at last to bay. 

Delhi, more than any other city in India, represents the splen- 
dor and reign of the great Mogul emperors. 

As a pillar, the Kutab Minar has no equal. As a mosque, the 
Pearl Mosque in Agra is rich beyond comparison. As a tomb, 
the Taj Mahal in Agra is, easily, without a parallel, while the 
palaces of Fathpur Sikri stand alone as memorials of kingly 
plans. But for general imperial splendor, Delhi surpassed them 
all. While there were times when other cities became capitals, 
according to the humor of the monarch, Delhi was, nevertheless, 
regarded as the general capital throughout the five reigns of 



636 INDIRA. 

the great Moguls. It was the largest city and the commercial 
centre, and abounded in the richest historical associations. 

The origin of Delhi is lost in obscurity. The country about 
it is the scene of some of the greatest deeds recorded in the Ma- 
habharata. The city first comes into prominence in the tenth 
century, as a magnificent capital, whose authority extended far 
and wide. Finally, the English traveller who went from Agra 
to Delhi in 1611 speaks of an Old Delhi even in that day. ~No 
city in India has had the benefit of a more thorough topographi- 
cal examination. Many careful searchers, with pick and spade, 
have gone to work to make the multitudes of mounds tell their 
story. The result is — and to this conclusion all have come — that 
Delhi, the old and the new, covers an area of forty-five square 
miles, and that within this space are enclosed the ruins of seven 
separate cities. The style of architecture, the certain dates pre- 
served, and the inscriptions, make this conclusion so strong that 
it cannot be disputed. 

My first ride was to the fort. Here, as usual in India, we found 
palaces to be the chief buildings, while their defence was merely 
secondary. In every case one enters through a great gateway, and 
drives directly across broad grounds to the palace and throne of 
the Mogul emperor. There are no European analogies to the In- 
dian notion of a palace. Everything must be open and airy. 
First of all, there is a central place, where the emperor sat on 
silken rugs, covered by rich canopies, and invited appeals from 
the common people. Far out, on either hand, stood his court- 
iers, in corridors or under other shading. I have seen a number 
of these very thrones ; either a raised platform or a marble chair, 
where the great ruler sat and dispensed justice, without much 
intervention of minister or courtier. The Indian despot always 
took great pride in being seen by his people, and in administering 
justice without intermediaries. He would talk with the man 
himself who sought justice. The concealment of his person from 
all curious eyes was no part of his conception of splendor. He 
regarded it a mark of authority to appear at stated times before 
his assembled people, and hear complaints and settle disputes. 

The Delhi palaces and all their belongings were contained in 
an immense parallelogram one thousand six hundred feet by three 
thousand two hundred feet. The buildings, great and small, 
were in marble and fine stone. The Diwan i Amm is a great 



DELHI, THE MOGUL METROPOLIS. 637 

open ball, where the emperor dispensed justice. The building 
is not high. You ascend by five steps to the hall itself, 
which is one hundred and eighty-four feet long, and open on 
three sides. The emperor's seat is a marble throne, with a 
marble canopy. Back of his seat, and forming the great back- 
ground to this picture of splendor, is a wall which is orna- 
mented with the fine and delicate mosaic work. The equal to 
this piece of mosaic, for variety and extent, can hardly be found 
in the world. The designs are of birds, and in semicircles, to 
conform to the sweep of the arch. Here are all the birds which 
one meets with in India. The natural colors, in fine stones, are 
as richly reproduced in this mosaic as in the folio plates to Au- 
dubon's " Birds of America." The attitudes and habits are even 
represented. Each bird is a study in itself. The calmer varie- 
ties are here portrayed as resting on twigs, or singing, or flying, 
or surprised and looking up, while the more muscular birds are 
described in the postures and acts which naturally befit them. 
All this is in precious stones. Besides the birds, there are 
mosaics, likewise in precious stones, of the fruits, flowers, and 
beasts known to India. 

There is a door here by which the emperor used to enter, to 
take his seat upon his throne of administration. As one looks 
at it, and sees all this splendor in ruins, he almost asks himself 
the question, " What if Shah JaMn should now come out, and 
take his seat upon his marble throne, and beneath his marble 
canopy, and have the birds and beasts and flowers of all India 
crowd about him to do him honor, and hear the vast throng 
before him take up the loud acclaim of honor and praise, until 
all Delhi should be vocal with cheers, that the emperor has come 
out from his august silence and solitude, and now gives public 
justice to his people ?" 

In addition to the Diwan i Amm, or Public Hall of Audience, 
there was always the Private Hall of Audience, where none but 
ministers of state might venture into the emperor's presence. They 
had heard petitions, and had matters of grave import in charge, 
and this was now the tribunal to which they might come, and 
lay their affairs before the great ruler in person. It is almost 
in a line with the Public Hall, but is smaller. It, too, is of mar- 
ble, with inlaying of gold and precious stones. It is ninety feet 
long and sixty feet broad. Three sides are open, and the roof 



638 INDIKA. 

or canopy is supported by six rows of pillars, at the top of each 
of which a group of arches meet. The following inscription is 
placed over the northern and southern arches : 

" Agar firdaus ba ru i zamin ast, 
Hamin ast, Haniin ast, Hamin ast." 

Which, being freely interpreted, means : 

If on earth be an Eden of bliss, 
It is this, it is this — none but this. 

Both the ceiling and the columns are ornamented in the rich- 
est coloring and designs known to Oriental art. It is believed 
that the ceiling was plated over with solid silver, but that it was 
stripped off by the Marhattas, and carried away, in 1760. 

The Peacock Throne. 

Here, beneath the wondrous canopy, stood the celebrated Pea- 
cock Throne, where the Mogul rulers gave forth their edicts for 
the government of India. It is thus described by Beresford : 

" In this hall was the famous Peacock Throne, so called from 
its having the figures of two peacocks standing behind it, their 
tails being expanded, and the whole so inlaid with sapphires, 
rubies, emeralds, pearls, and other precious stones of appropriate 
colors as to represent life. The throne itself was six feet long 
by four feet broad ; it stood on six massive feet, which, with the 
body, were of solid gold, inlaid with rubies, emeralds, and dia- 
monds. It was surmounted by a canopy of gold, supported by 
twelve pillars, all richly emblazoned with costly gems, and a 
fringe of pearls ornamented the borders of the canopy. Between 
the two peacocks stood the figure of a parrot of the ordinary 
size, said to have been carved out of a single emerald. On either 
side of the throne stood an umbrella, one of the Oriental em- 
blems of royalty. They Avere formed of crimson velvet, richly 
embroidered and fringed with pearls ; the handles were eight 
feet high, of solid gold, and studded with diamonds. The cost 
of this superb work of art has been variously stated at sums 
varying from one to six millions of pounds sterling. It was 
planned and executed under the supervision of Austin de Bor- 
deaux." * 

* " Delhi," 1856. 



DELHI, THE MOGUL METROPOLIS. 639 

The eyes of one of the peacocks were represented by two im- 
mense jewels — the Koh-i-nur, Mountain of Light, and the Koh-i- 
tur, Mountain of Sinai. When Nadir Shah sacked Delhi and broke 
up the Peacock Throne, he failed to find the great Koh-i-nur. 
The Mogul emperor, who was now disowned, did not seem to 
possess it. But a woman betrayed his secret, and informed the 
conqueror that the emperor still possessed it, and that it was 
concealed in his turban. As the bulk of the treasures was now 
in the conqueror's hands, and a treaty had been concluded, to 
make a search would violate all the proprieties. But a trick 
was employed. At a great ceremony, Nadir proposed to the 
dethroned emperor to exchange turbans with him, as a token 
of good faith. There was no time for reflection. The conquer- 
or's turban was glittering with gems, and yet it would be worth- 
less in comparison should the emperor's contain in its wreaths 
the coveted Koh-i-nur. The emperor could not decline his con- 
queror's proposition of good faith. The exchange was made. 
Later, when Nadir withdrew to his tent, and took off his turban, 
behold, he possessed the Mountain of Light — the Koh-i-nur ! 

This priceless diamond remained a long time in the Panjab, 
as a part of the Lahor treasury. When the Panjab was an- 
nexed to England in 1849, and the East India Company took 
possession of the Lahor treasury in part payment of the debt 
due by the Lahor government, a stipulation was that the Koh- 
i-nur should be presented to the Queen of England. When the 
East India Board met, the diamond was committed to the care 
of the illustrious John (afterwards Lord) Lawrence. He received 
it, dropped it into his waistcoat pocket, and forgot all about it. 
He went home, and on changing his clothes he threw his waistcoat 
aside. Some time after this, a message came from Queen Vic- 
toria ordering the great diamond to be sent immediately to her! 
Sir John Lawrence said to his brother, " Well, send it at once !" 

" Why, you have it," replied Henry to John. John was as- 
tonished beyond description. But on finding his waistcoat, there 
lay the Koh-i-nur, in one of the pockets.* This was the greatest 
of its risks, and now it rests securely in Windsor Castle ! 

The ornamentation of this hall consists in part of richly colored 
inscriptions, in Persian, and so skilfully executed as to be a part 



* Leisure Hour, London, 1887. 



640 INDIRA. 

of the very artistic finish of the work itself. One would sup- 
pose these inscriptions to be only the lavish display of the paint- 
er's brush or the marble-cutter's line chisel. Here is one of them : 

" Lovely angels, seeking pearls row after row, 
Come down to bless mankind, and fonts where flow 
Life's waters, which a crystal radiance show." 

Over another arch one reads : " Praise be to God ! What a 
mansion is this of many hues, and what a heart-delighting abode ! 
I might call it a portion of Paradise, for even the holy-minded 
angels gaze on it with eagerness." In another place we read, 
with reference to Alexander's wall of steel, built so high that 
none could scale or cross it : 

" Higher than heaven we may find this fortress call, 
Which causes envy to Sikander's wall." 

The imperial baths are still preserved in their original state. 
They consist of three great rooms, lighted through colored win- 
dows in the roof. The floor of each room is of white marble, 
inlaid with colored marbles of various designs, forming a whole 
of beautiful mosaic, as rich as a piece of Kashmir tapestry. 
The ceiling is also of slabs of white marble. Each room has, in 
the centre, a fountain, and one can see to-day the excellent ar- 
rangement, than which none are better in these later times, for 
a supply of hot and cold water. There is a solid beauty, a sym- 
metry and real splendor, in them, worthy of the best of the Mo- 
gul emperors j.n his best mood. 

Close by the Baths is the little Pearl Mosque, the Moti Mas- 
jid, where the emperor and his court worshipped. The entire 
building is of white marble. It has a facade of three arches, of 
the fine Saracenic curve. The door is of solid bronze. In the 
interior there is a severity and coldness that come from the 
simplicity of the finish. The Mohammedans, however much 
they may ornament their baths and palaces and tombs, are care- 
ful to have their mosques simple, and yet superbly solid and 
rich. They allow nothing which will suggest idolatry. There 
must be only the coldness of solid stone, no ornamentation with 
beast and bird. The most interesting object in this precious bit 
of architecture is the marble divan, or one might call it a throne, 
where the emperor reclined. This is hardly the place for it. 



DELHI, THE MOGUL METROPOLIS. 



641 



Possibly it has been brought into the mosque as the best way 
for its preservation. Its design is exceedingly graceful. It has 
been broken, by the fracturing centuries and dynasties, but all 
its parts are together, and in proper place. On a square in the 
magnificent marble floor, distinguished from all the rest, is the 
slab where the emperor always worshipped. 

This little Mosque, with its marble couch, and then the won- 
derful Baths, are the best preserved of all the groups of impe- 
rial buildings within the wall of the citadel of the emperors 
who lived in Delhi. 
41 




MUSSULMAN WATEE-CAEEIEE, 
DELHI. 



CHAPTEK LXXIII. 

THE ELDER DELHI. 

One must go out upon the river-side of the palace and its de- 
pendencies in order to see the beauty and real charm of all the 
Delhis. Here is the Jamna, in its broad sweep and wild flow 
downward towards Allahabad, where it is lost forever in the 
Ganges. From the magnificent balconies and towers, and 
through the windows of the private apartments, the royal oc- 
cupants could look out upon a landscape of great beauty and 
variety. There were no mountains, no succession of hills, no great 
display of varied scenery. But there was the river, and water 
was the joy of all Oriental hearts, from emperor down to the 
humblest bearer. The city, with its noises, lay in the rear of 
the citadel and the palace. When Aurangzeb, or any ruler, 
wished for calm and rest, all he needed was to come out on the 
river balconies, and see the quiet fields, the waving palms, the 
peaceful river, and flocks, as far out as the eye could reach. 

But these emperors were seldom at home. Probably, if their 
days of calm and peace, spent here in this Delhi paradise, were 
summed up, it would be found that where they spent one here 
they spent fifty far away, on long and dangerous campaigns. 
All the Mogul palaces, though built at fabulous cost, were at 
best only brief dreams and hopes. 

In order to visit the ruins of the elder Delhi, Professor Foote 
and I escaped from the crowd of vendors in our veranda, took car- 
riage, and left our lodgings, early one morning, with a good 
guide. "We left the present city by the Ajmir Gate, and soon 
found ourselves in the country, with here and there a mound 
which tells the story of the ruins of the former city, long before 
the Moguls had found a resting-place in India. 

The country is well cultivated, and is rich and inviting to the 
tiller of the soil. Every now and then we passed the broken 
wall of the garden of some wealthy grandee, whose name is now 



THE ELDER DELHI. 



643 




forgotten. No doubt, in the 
far-gone centuries, this entire 
road was a royal way. The 
•traces, on either side, are of 
former luxury and comfort. 
At about two miles from 
the present Delhi, on the 
left-hand side, we came to 
Jai Singh's Observatory. 
We left our carriage, and 
crossed the field to ascend it. 
Here is an inclined plane of 
stone, by which a stair led 
to the great astronomer's 
dial. There are several 
other structures which fur- 
nished facilities for taking 
astronomical observations. 
These buildings were con- 
structed from designs by Jai 
Singh II., the learned Rajah 
of Jaipur, in 1724. He was 
the greatest astronomer 
whom India has produced. 
It was he who prepared the 



644 INDIRA. 

celebrated Tij Muhammed Shahi, or Tables of the Stars, which 
not only corrected all the previous astronomical calculations of 
India, but formed the basis for exact calculation in subsequent 
times. None of these astronomical buildings are now used. 
India now gets its astronomers and astronomy from the "West. 
The buildings are only a shelter now for bats and goats, while 
wild weeds grow around the base of all their walls. 

Kutab Minae. 

In two hours we reached the traveller's bungalow, where we 
halted and took tiffin. "We were but a short distance from the 
Kutab Minar. I had seen it so often in pictures, and it had stood 
out before us on our road from Delhi so prominently, that it 
seemed already like an old acquaintance. This immense tower, 
rising as gracefully as a reed from the river's bank, carries with 
it, like the Pyramid of Cheops, its own great mystery. 

No one knows, and no one has explained plausibly, its pur- 
pose. It is neither minaret, tower, nor pillar. Yet it is all these 
in one. Here is a lofty structure, rising to a height of two hun- 
dred and forty feet and six inches, divided into five stories, and 
lessening from a base whose diameter is forty-seven feet and 
three inches, to a crowning platform whose diameter is nine feet. 
Once it was surmounted by a graceful cupola, but this was thrown 
down by an earthquake in 1803. If we add about thirty feet to 
the present column, and then surmount it by a cupola, we shall 
have nearly its original proportions. 

But the abruptness of the upper part does not diminish the 
grandeur of this remarkable shaft. It is the loftiest piece of 
Mogul architecture which has ever been reared, or of which any 
trace exists. Its great charm is in the variety of its exterior. 
It is not one unbroken surface, but with its five stories, each of 
a style peculiar to itself, it forms a shaft singularly symmetrical, 
and at once majestic and graceful. The first three stories are of 
gray granite, faced with red sandstone. The remaining two 
are of the same material, but with bands of white marble. The 
flutings are a remarkable feature of this gigantic work. The 
base is a polygon, of twenty-four sides, and on this, and in har- 
mony with it, rests the first story. Here the fluting is semicir- 
cular, alternating with the rectangular, the combination produc- 
ing a most pleasing effect. It is a wonderful union of straight 
lines and curves. 




SECTION OF KUTAB MINAR, DELHI. 



THE ELDER DELHI. (347 

The second and third stories reproduce, in the fluting, the style 
of the first— the second having only the semicircular fluting, and 
the third only the rectangular. The fourth story has no fluting, 
but is plain and circular. In the fifth story the semicircular flut- 
ing reappears. Around the top of each story there is a deli- 
cate balcony, which, instead of interfering with the general ef- 
fect, adds to the beauty and impressiveness of the whole great 
structure. 

If this great shaft were designed for a minaret, it certainly 
differs from all others known to Mohammedan art. The mosque 
here is not of such kind, or in such a place, that this could have 
served as a minaret to it. It has no defensive significance. It 
seems to be simply a great and noble shaft, which combines all 
the qualities of Mohammedan art, and serves as a memorial of 
the splendor of the Delhi of the twelfth century, long before the 
Mogul empire had startled the world with its despotic and bar- 
baric splendor and its victories on many a battle-field. 

The Hindu character of the architecture is striking. There 
are rich bands of engravings, containing sentiments from the 
Quran, around three stories of the Kutab. They are Arabic, 
but in the Tughra character. In addition to the letters there is 
elaborate carving, of many exquisite designs, of pure Hindu in- 
tricacy and finish, and as rich as any of the tracery on the Sar- 
nath temple in the rye-field of sacred Benares. The column is, 
perhaps, the finest triumph of Mohammedan architecture before 
it stood alone. It shows its Hindu dependence. The conqueror 
could not get along without the conquered, and hence, in his first 
bold flights, he made use of the wisdom of the men he had mas- 
tered. Later, however, he threw off all Hindu allegiance. His 
creations show no trace of the former masters of India. 

I climbed to the top of the Kutab. It was a long and hard 
ascent, but at each landing I halted awhile, and went out on the 
graceful platform to rest. 

The Yiew feom the Kutab. 

"Who will describe the view from this great height ? Off, in a 
straight line, lies the Delhi of to-day, with its fort, its mosque, 
and its great wall. In another direction, where Humayun's 
tomb is, there is a still older Delhi than even the one where we 
now stand. It was Old Delhi, or Delhi Purana, before the first 



648 INDIRA. 

foundation-stones of the Kutab were laid. There flows the great 
Jamna, ever young, ever beneficent, despite the rise and death of 
the civilizations. No change takes place in the music of its 
waters. On they go, and still will go, from the Himalayas to 
the Ganges, and they will sing none the less sweetly when all 
India is Christian. 

On every side, so far as the eye can reach, one sees the domes 
which cover tombs, mosques, and former abodes of the princes 
of the land. Decay is now the order of the day with them. 
Walls which begin to break are. allowed to tumble to the earth. 
An old garden is not kept up. Nothing of small significance is 
restored, but is allowed to die. But valuable ruins are saved. 
England lets nothing important die in India. She has her men 
at hand, with pick and spade, and every restoring force, and 
brings all back to its former splendor. For instance, the base of 
the Kutab was covered with debris. The whole great creation 
was a bowing ruin when left by the earthquake. But it was 
worth the saving. Hence, England has taken care to have the 
debris cleared away, and the entire structure repaired, wherever 
a stone has been needed. 

The Mosque in Old Delhi. 

The mosque of Kutab al Islam was begun immediately after 
the Mohammedan capture of Delhi and the occupation of India. 
It was, probably, one of the first tributes of gratitude for the 
conquest of the Hindus. It was begun in the year 1191, and 
was completed in 1300. Of its kind it stands alone in India. 
You enter the spacious sacred enclosure through a majestic gate- 
way of five arches. The court is four hundred and twenty feet 
long by three hundred and eighty -four feet broad. This is a 
cloistered space, with pillars of Hindu architecture. "When the 
mosque was in its original state there were, it is supposed, twelve 
hundred pillars. Many now remaining are of every possible 
design. The variety of tracing, the wild freaks of the architect, 
the lavish introduction of all the curious and rich patterns known 
to the workers in silk and enamel, are here reproduced in stone 
and marble. They are to-day the pure and choice remnants of 
Delhi when it was only Hindu, before the Mohammedan scimiter 
had profaned the Indus or the Jamna. Hindu temples stood 
everywhere, beneath every shady palm, along the river at every 



THE ELDER DELHI. 649 

bend, within every rajah's garden wall. But when the Mogul 
came, he changed all this. He tore down the images of 
men, and monkeys, and elephants, and peacocks, and gods. 
With heavy sledge he struck off the noses, and put out the 
eyes, and disfigured every face. "There is one God," he 




TREES IN THE COURT-YARD OF THE MOSQUE. 

cried, as he played the iconoclast. Then he took these same 
pillars, now destroyed for all idolatrous possibilities, and made 
them do service in his own mosques. There is an inscription 
over the entrance to the immense court which says that the 



650 INDIRA. 

pillars here used are made of the ruins of twenty-seven Hindu 

temples. 

The Ikon Pillak. 

There is an iron pillar, in a court by itself, which is the most 
ancient of all the ruins in this early Delhi. It varies from the 
usual metallic memorials of the early days in that it is of solid 
wrought iron. Its height above ground is forty feet, and its diam- 
eter sixteen inches. But it has been ascertained that an import- 
ant part, not less than twenty feet additional, is still below 
ground. It is believed by Prinsep and other antiquarians to be- 
long to the third or fourth century of the Christian era. The 
Hindu tradition ascribes to this column the very origin of Delhi 
itself, for, when Anang Pal ordered it to be taken out of the 
ground, it was discovered that it was wet with the blood of the 
Serpent King. He did all in his power to place it firmly again 
in the earth, but failed. The pillar remained dhila, "loose," 
and so sprang into existence the Delhi of all the later ages. 
There is a deep inscription, in six lines, in Sanskrit characters, 
which tells the history of this remarkable shaft. 

On our homeward road we left the way by which we had 
come, and visited the Tombs of Humayun and of Nizam ud din 
Auliya. They are remarkable structures. Each tomb is not one 
building, but a group, where marble and other rich stones are 
brought into use in great profusion. 

I afterwards climbed up a rough road to Indrapat, or Purana 
Qila. This is an old fort, within an ancient wall. It is a mere 
fragment of a ruin. But it marks the site of the most remote 
of all the Delhis. It is the worn and wasted fragment of the 
first city which stood in all this region. One can see to-day 
where the old gates once swung on their hinges. 

But all the gates are closed or gone now, except one, that 
through which we went. We went along a rough and narrow 
lane, with beggars and the blind on either hand to greet us by 
their piteous cries for pice. We reached a beautiful mosque, and 
climbed up as high as we could, and then looked off upon the 
great valley of the Jamna. We lingered long in this abode of 
desolation. Near by, just across a narrow lane, is the ruin where 
Humayun kept his great librar}". But none of his precious vol- 
umes have been preserved. The books have gone with the reader, 
into oblivion. 



THE ELDER DELHI. 



651 



A feeble old man was our guide about these lanes, and out in 
the open place overlooking the great vale. His mind was filled 
with images of departed glory. He was himself a part of his 




A TOMB IN OLD DELHI. 



sad story. Older ruins, but not a more striking type of the past, 
did I see that day than the aged man from whom I parted at 
the old imperial gateway, with its crumbling, but still glowing, 
ornaments of rich tiles. 



CHAPTER LXXIY. 

THE JAMA MASJID.— DELHI IN THE MUTINY. 

The rest of my time in Delhi was spent in the examination 
of objects of more recent date. I went again to the Fort, and 
saw the Halls of Audience and the Baths. The endeavor to see 
the precious little mosque once more was fruitless, for its brass 
doors were closed. Twice I visited the Jama Masjid, or Great 
Mosque. Here is a mosque, elevated, with its immense court, 
upon a broad platform. You reach the platform by three great 
stairways, which, because of the easy and graceful ascent, remind 
one of the steps by which the Greeks reached their Parthenon. 

As I looked at these steps of the Jama Masjid, again and 
again, they made such an impression of majesty and grace as it 
was very difficult to account for. There is such a harmony be- 
tween their length and height and angle of ascent, combined with 
the great structure into which they lead, that, as a mere path- 
way into a court and a place of worship, they are probably with- 
out a parallel in modern times. The steps narrow as they ascend, 
the lowest being one hundred and forty-nine feet and ten inches 
long. There are forty steps in all, each being eight inches high. 
" This mosque," says Temple, " built by the emperor Shah Jahan, 
... is probably the most beautiful mosque on a very large scale 
that has ever been seen in the world. Its vast dimensions, swell- 
ing cupolas, and lofty arches ; its spacious court-yard, arcades, 
gateway, cloisters, and flight of steps produce ultimately an im- 
posing effect. But even this is hardly perceived at first by the 
beholder, because his admiration is so riveted by the grace of 
its forms, the nicety of its proportions, the delicate adjustment 
of its component parts, and the harmony of its coloring. For 
the material of this noble structure the marble lends its brightness 
and the sandstone its finest red." * 

* " India in 1880," pp. 40, 41. 



THE JAMA MASJID.— DELHI IN THE MUTINY. 655 

Here, as in many other mosques, special pains have been taken 
with the gateways. They are massive and imposing, and worthy 
of the mosque into which the}'' introduce the traveller. The 
main doors are sixteen feet high, and are of wood, covered with 
heavy brass, which is richly ornamented with arabesques. The 
court is immense, three hundred and twenty-five feet square, 
and every part paved with stone. In the centre are a marble 
basin and fountain. 

The mosque itself is two hundred and one feet long, and one 
hundred and twenty feet broad. It was built in the year 1658. 
Five thousand men wrought at it six years, in order to complete 
it. Its two minarets are one hundred and thirty feet high. 
From their top the best view of Delhi is to be had. In a little 
corner of one of the outer corridors there are some relics, which 
pious Mohammedans set great store by, such as a Quran in Cufic, 
from the seventh century ; another, written by the Imam Hasan ; 
an alleged slipper of Mohammed, filled with jasmine ; a block 
of stone, with a great footprint, claimed to be the impression 
of Mohammed's foot ; a supposed hair of the prophet's mous- 
tache ; and a piece of the canopy from over his tomb. 

The Traces of the Mutiny. 

Delhi will be forever associated with the Indian Mutiny as 
the very citadel of its strength. About this city of cities, where 
the traditions of Mogul splendor form only the newest chapter 
in the history of native rule, the natives of India have woven 
their finest threads of patriotism. The Hindu memory goes far 
back over the centuries, and all the currents of religion, romance, 
and military daring centre here. It is not surprising, therefore, 
that when Hindu and Mohammedan resolved upon throwing off 
British rule, they should think immediately of Delhi as their 
capital. This is precisely what they did. They planned that 
Delhi should be the centre of their restored royalty. Those old 
palaces should be clothed with their original splendor, if only 
the English could be driven out. The emperors should again walk 
the marble corridors, and once more sit in the Public and Pri- 
vate Halls, and dispense justice from the renewed Peacock 
Throne. Their beautiful daughters, like the sweet Lalla Eookh, 
should again be given in marriage only to kings, and be borne 
by only careful hands to Kashmir and other barbaric capitals. 



656 INDIKA. 

A new Delhi should arise upon the ruins of the present. The 
Afghan should again be conquered. The Nizam, and every 
other native prince who had dared to help the English, should 
be hurled from his throne, as unworthy to be called an Indian. 
Not a trace of the Briton, or his Gospel, or his cannon, should 
be left, from the mountains down to Ceylon. 

It was a great dream, but only a dream. The mutineers held 
Delhi with an iron grasp. The English could get it only by a 
siege. Their efforts to capture it lasted from June 8, 1857, to Sep- 
tember of the same year. One attack after another was resisted 
with great bravery. The English knew that, unless Delhi should 
fall, their power in India would be at an end. There would be 
such a revival of the old national feeling that the natives could 
not be conquered. Hence, with full appreciation of the impor- 
tance of the possession of this city, they spent every possible 
effort in that direction. The butchery of the defenceless Eng- 
lish and their families, in cold blood, at the outset, showed the 
bitter feeling of the native mind. By careful combinations, 
though after repeated failures, the British troops, under Gen- 
eral John Nicholson, took Delhi. I climbed up on the wall 
which joins at the Kashmir Gate, and saw the still clear traces 
of the havoc which was wrought by English shot and shell. 
Thirty years have not concealed the strong reminders of the 
bloody struggle. 

But it was not shot and shell alone which did the work in this 
case. A body of English soldiers, right in the face of a terrible 
fire from the parapets, marched boldly up to the Kashmir Gate, 
rushed across the bridge, lodged powder bags against the gate, 
lighted the fuse, and blew open the gate itself. This last resort 
meant certain death to many an Englishman. Well they knew 
it, but they did not hesitate. The work was well done. Those 
who were left alive marched through the bloody opening into 
the city. On came the assaulting column in hot haste. Delhi 
was now sure to be again in English hands. 

The fighting was not all over, however. But the city was 
held, and in two weeks more the English flag floated again from 
the gateway of the great fort. The final struggle was on the 
23d of September, when brave John Nicholson, the general of 
the army, fell in the moment of victory. 

Not far from the Kashmir Gate is one of the pillars of the 



THE JAMA MA8JID.— DELHI IN THE MUTINY. 657 

great Asoka. It has two pedestals, measuring together five feet 
in height. The pillar rises twenty-four feet above the pedestal. 

After lingering long amid the weeds at the Kashmir Gate, and 
wandering over the still fresh and broken parts of the upper 
wall, I descended, and walked out to the English cemetery. 
Here I saw the plain tombstone to the memory of Nicholson. 
Many other graves of English soldiers and civilians are here. 
Some of the inscriptions are very touching. The Englishman's 
heart is never seen more clearly, and to its deepest depth, 
than in the tributes which he writes over his brother's dust in 
far-off India. 

It was now midday, and the sun was intensely hot. I had 
no carriage, and none was to be found in the suburbs. But this 
was my only opportunity to go out into the country and see 
the Mutiny Memorial, a monument to the English heroes who 
won Delhi back to England, but died in the effort. The walk 
was exhausting, but the reward was ample. 

The monument covers a hill which commands a great stretch 
of country. Seen at a distance, it presents a picture of great 
delicacy and beauty, and reminded me at once of the Waverley 
Monument to Sir Walter Scott in Edinburgh. The structure 
is an octagon, and has seven pointed windows, on which are 
inscriptions containing the history of the events — with the names 
of the fallen in battle — which led to the capture of Delhi. Noth- 
ing important is omitted. By going within, and ascending sev- 
enty-eight steps, I gained the top of the monument. Suddenly 
the broad and beautiful scene of Delhi and the outlying country 
came into view. 

My previous wanderings in the city and its environs now 
enabled me to identify all the outlying parts which make up 
the Delhi of romance and history. This was my last view of 
the great city and its wonderful environment. I confess that I 
did not care for another, for fear this would be disturbed. Near 
by, just at the foot of the hilly crest whose crown is the Mutiny 
Memorial, I noticed a large body of native troops, undergoing 
drill, and commanded by English officers. 
42 



CHAPTER LXXV. 

A TOUR INTO THE PANJAB. 

In going northwest, into the Panjab, I was passing through 
the pathway of the Aryan conquerors of India. The Panjab is 
the latest India of England. Because of its frontier character, 
its unsettled condition, its varied and provincial life, and its bar- 
baric antiquities, it is the least known of all the English posses- 
sions in Asia. Strictly speaking, with your back towards Europe, 
it is the front valley of the Indus. Everything has a meaning in 
India, and the Panjab is only another name for the Five Rivers 
which make the historic Indus. They rise far back among 
the western Himalayas, bring down their waters from glaciers 
twenty-five miles in length, and peaks twenty-six thousand feet 
high, and hurl their mighty torrent into one great current, which 
is thrown at last into the Arabian Sea. It is a fertile region, not 
less so than the Yalley of the Ganges. 

This Panjab is the open door, the only one by which the 
European of earlier days was able to descend upon the plains of 
India for conquest and a new home. The sea was not the path 
by which the old nations travelled for their mightier conquests. 
The desert and the mountain have been the road towards enemy 
and empire. When the river was reached, it was only to de- 
scend it awhile, and then leave its banks for the further cam- 
paign. The steaming Indian marshes have put to death more 
armies than hostile arrows ever struck. In the Panjab every 
foot of the land is a romance. No one knows how many armies 
have shivered in the winds of the hills of Afghanistan, and then 
pounced down through the Khaibar Pass into India, and over- 
spread the country, until the people could rise and destroy the 
stranger within the gates. Whenever a European invader of 
Asia has reached well into the continent, his dream has always 
been India. That country has ever been, and still is, the pearl 
of all the Orient. Its perfect sky in winter, its plenteous rains 




THE TIGER IK HIS LAIR. 



A TOUR INTO THE PAN JAB. 



661 



in summer, its immense rivers, its boundless stores of wealth, and 
its enduring industries, which know no change, have made it 
the dream of every great conqueror. Many a one who invaded 
Syria and Persia and Arabia dreamed — even if he did not di- 
vulge his dreams — of India itself. He meant India always, even 
if, like Julian, he died before he reached it. Did Julian ever say 
that he had India in mind ? Not that his biographers have told 
us. But his wars, his genius in arms, his love of letters, his vig- 




_^%>s»^ 



BAITING THE TIGER. 



orous campaign in Parthia, make us believe that his eye was on 
India, and nothing nearer, before he said on his last field, " Thou, 
O Galilean, has conquered, after all !" 

The Panjab is Alexander's land. He had studied every part of 
it, and then reached it, at the head of his victorious army. Right 
where I am now writing his hosts marched by, and hoped to stay, 
and bequeath these rich fields to a Greek posterity. He found 
dynasties, old and strong before his own Macedonia had acquired 
a place on the world's map, and before the first stones of Priam's 
42* 



662 INDIRA. 

Troy had been laid. Some of the kings of the region, with true 
Oriental suppleness, gave him a flattering welcome, and in Taxila, 
which still bears the same name it did twenty-three centuries 
ago, when he pitched his silken tent here, the kindly descend- 
ants of the old Turanian founders gave him a feast which lasted 
three full days. Alexander found the Aryans in full force in 
his forward march, ruling proudly and strongly, and having the 
same customs, and wearing turn-up shoes and loose robes of pre- 
cisely the same style as the men and women who now move 
up and down these streets of Lahor, before my window. The 
Aryans had ruled in this country, on both sides of his pathway, 
almost as long before Alexander's day as he lived before ours. 
He found them just as determined to hold their own as the Eng- 
lish have found their descendants, to their great cost, in these 
two latest centuries. 

Long before reaching Lahor I could see the majestic outline 
of the Kashmir Mountains. They were as white as Mount 
Blanc's southern shoulder, over which I had climbed, in the far- 
back student days, from Aosta and Courmajeur. The Kashmir- 
ian panorama changed every few minutes, as our train moved 
along the curves. I was thinking of the romance of the region. 
Here it was that Lalla Rookh was borne tenderly to her new 
home, from her Delhi palace to the hanging gardens in the Yale 
of Kashmir the Blest. Here the English had gone up many a 
time into Afghanistan, to keep open the pathway to India, and 
shut out forever the Russian. Her diplomats and soldiers had 
played many a shrewd game, and hundreds of Anglo-Saxon 
nobles, nursed in English homes, had fallen by rude Afghan 
hands, and been left to bleach upon the plain. 

Take Arthur Conolly as an illustration — living, and likely tor- 
tured down to the convulsions of death, in the filthy court of a 
Kabul prison. 

I do not know a more affecting piece of bibliographical ro- 
mance than that of his prayer-book, which he used in his last 
days, and whose story I have just come across in this very re- 
gion. One day a prayer-book was found either by General 
Skobeleff, of Russia, or by a man who afterwards gave it to 
him. This was in Afghanistan. The book contained many of 
Conolly 's notes, all along its margins, in careful writing. Skobeleff 
took pains to preserve the volume, and presented it to the Lon- 



A TOUR INTO THE PAN JAB. 



663 



don Geographical Society. The Society found its associations to 
be personal rather than general, and handed it back to its Rus- 
sian owner. He then took care to learn of the kinspeople of Con- 
oily, and so, one morning, in London, the book was handed to 
the servant, who answered the door-bell of Conolly's surviving 
sister. Think of the feelings of that sister, when she opened the 
precious packet and saw her dead brothers prayer-book ! It had 
been twenty years since his dying hand had written his notes, 
and his spirit had gone up from an Afghan gibbet to its crown 
and joy. All these years his volume had wandered from one far-off 
bazar and owner to another. We talk often of the mortality of 
books. Is not their longevity a much more wondrous thing ? 




BRINGING HOilE THE GAME. 



CHAPTEE LXXYI. 

LAHOR— THE PANJAB CAPITAL. 

No historian has been rash enough to fix a positive date for 
the foundation of Lahor. Its antiquity goes beyond all the 
records. One city after another has arisen on the ruins of its 
predecessor, and out yonder, under the ripe harvests, the old 
foundations are found in perplexing number. There cannot 
have been less than four Lahors, that of to-day being a mere 
parvenu growth, hardly older than four centuries ; but still pre- 
serving the rich memorials of the rule and splendor of the Mogul 
conquerors. The first Lahor was probably an old city when 
Hiouen Thsang, the Chinese pilgrim, visited it, in the seventh 
century of our era. Hindu tradition, true to its habits, makes 
its origin divine, and declares that Loh, the elder son of Rama, 
was its founder. Its former grandeur was famed throughout 
the East. As one of the splendid capitals in early India, its 
name was known everywhere. Four centuries ago, Abu'l Fazl 
declared of it that it was "the resort of all nations." Shiraz 
and Isfahan were famous in the days of the undisputed sway of 
the Moguls, and yet a proverb of the day ran in this wise : " If 
Shiraz and Isfahan were united, they would not make one La- 
hor." Its fame had reached across both continents, and Milton 
found it in the old books, and so made wise use of it in his verse. 

Ptolemy, in his geography (about a.d. 150), mentions a city 
along the banks of the Ravi, which is identified as Lahor, an 
identification the more striking because of the recent discovery 
of Aurakatis, also mentioned by him, about twenty miles from 
the present Lahor. 

Lahor, as. we see it to-day, is about the size of Cincinnati. Its 
wonderful architecture is of Mogul origin, and therefore com- 
paratively recent. It was a great imperial city, and then guarded 
well the pathway from Afghanistan down into the valley of 
the Ganges. It is the Nuremberg of India. The great walls 




^J -. 'jSLiE__: I J^Jeiai 



LABOR— THE PANJAB CAPITAL. 667 

still surround it, and bristle with reminders of the great battles 
which were fought to their bitterest end on the historical plain 
of the Ravi. 

The tomb of Anar Kali, " Pomegranate Blossom," is a beauti- 
ful memorial of the great Akbar's reign. It was erected in 
memory of the favorite woman of his court, and is remarkable for 
the magnificence of its sarcophagus. The English seldom change 
a Hindu ruin to other purposes. But here is an exception. 
They have actually converted this magnificent tomb into a little 
church, and banished to a dark closet, frequented by bats, the 
sarcophagus, " whose exquisitely formed words surpass anything 
of the kind in India." On the face and sides of the sarcophagus 
are inscribed ninety -nine names of God. 

The Shalamak Gakdens. 

One night the Mogul emperor, Shah Jahan, had a dream of a 
garden like that of Paradise. He summoned his artists, repeated 
his dream of rare flowers, rich fruits, marble fountains, and cool 
pavilions ; and ordered his visionary garden to be made a reality. 
The result was the Shalamar Gardens, which were laid out in 
seven divisions, representing the seven degrees of the Paradise 
of Islam. Of the seven only two remain, and they cover an 
area of eighty acres. Here are flowers, fruits, cascades, beauti- 
ful resting-places, terraces, and all the marvels of an Indian gar- 
den.* A tank is in the centre of the floral paradise. There are 
one hundred fountains in the first division of the garden, and two 
hundred rising from the tank itself. In the centre of the tank, 
or artificial lake, there is an islet, which is approached by a pas- 
sage way. 

On entering the portals of the great fort of Lahor, I found 
myself within an immense court, which is beautified by a 
splendid palace and a mosque of wonderful proportions. I saw 
no palace in India where it was so easy to identify each part, and 
its purpose, as here. In one place is the Takhtgah, or "Throne 
Place," where Akbar sat. In another is a clump of trees, where 
once stood the tomb of the holy man who used to warn the great 
emperor that he was mortal. Elsewhere there is the spot where 
the emperor heard his Arzbegi read the petitions of his people. 

* Cf. F. D. Newhouse, Letters in Western Christian Advocate (Cincinnati). 



668 INDIRA. 

Here is a rich marble pavilion on which a whole fortune of nine 
lacs was spent. But these scenes of splendor are wearying. One 
wanders through stately halls and lettered corridors, and out on 
verandas and balconies, until wearied with the splendor of this 
greatest palace of Labor. English soldiers keep faithful guard 
over all. They have not the bearing of strangers, but are as 
deliberate and composed as if they were sauntering along the 
Thames embankment. 

The Museum. 

Some years ago an exhibition was held in Lahor, to which 
objects were sent from all parts of the country, in order to throw 
light upon the history, industries, and general life of the entire 
northwestern part of India. When the exhibition was over, a 
permanent museum in Lahore sprang out of it, many of the ex- 
hibits having been retained for that purpose. The result is a 
precious collection of Indian antiquities. The one in the South 
Kensington Museum is a mere toy-shop compared to this. While 
there are some collections in India which are larger, so far as 
natural history is concerned, there is probably not one which re- 
veals so fully the India of the elder days, when its Oriental life 
was not disturbed by the intruding Portuguese or Frenchman 
or Englishman. Here, for example, is a stone with an inscrip- 
tion of the time of King Gondophares, two thousand years ago. 
Then there are pediments of pillars from a building of the an- 
cient Taxila sculptures from the Usufzai country, where one sees 
the Greek influence of twenty-two centuries ago — such as the 
Phrygian cap and Macedonian cloak. 

There are many coins, gathered hereabout, dating precisely 
from Alexander's day. Each city in the Northwest- seems to 
have had its special industry, and in this museum they are all 
represented. Here are the damascened pottery of Gujerat and 
Sialkot, the vitreous enamel of Bhawalpur, the copper-engraved 
work of Kashmir, and the perforated metal work of Delhi. Then 
we have the gold and silk embroidery of Amritsar, and the coarse 
cloths of Kabul. An entire department is assigned to agricul- 
ture and the mechanical implements of the ruder India. The 
type of plough is here which the Indians were using in the val- 
ley of the Indus before Philip threatened Athens or Alexander 
was born. The kind of rope, the awkward rakes and hoes and 



LAHOR—THE PAN JAB CAPITAL. 



669 



pruning-knives, such as were in use before Alexander reached 
India, are here to be seen. Here is the floss-silk embroidery, on 
long curtains, literally covered with little mirrors, such as were 
used in the imperial halls of the Mogul palaces, and are still 
woven in the primitive looms of Amritsar. 

Here is rough paper, made of bamboo and the bark of trees, 
just such as merchants wrote their letters on, and sent them by 
swift couriers up and down the valley of the Euphrates, many a 
long century ago. Here are monumental tablets, with worn in- 
scriptions, reared by kings whose very names are forgotten in 
the rapid march towards the newer and the more practical. 
Here is a warrior's freak. It is a sword, with open steel handle, 
richly inlaid with gold and silver. It has a long hilt, and up and 
down its length run beautiful grooves, into which loose pearls are 
let, which glided back and forth as the sword was handled. But 
here in rich and great Labor there is no dearth of emeralds, 
pearls, and diamonds. They were the playthings of kings and 
their wives. Special emissaries were sent out on long missions 
to search the world for the best. Many a life was wasted in the 
quest, and many a province was lost and won when the stake 
was one woman and a handful of diamonds. 




HINDU POTTER, LAHOR. 



CHAPTEK LXXVIL 

THE GOLDEN TEMPLE OF AMRITSAR. 

We were met at the Amritsar station by a Christian native, 
the Padre Rajib Ali. He is a fine illustration of the power of 
Christianity to gather grand trophies from any false faith. He 
was formerly a Sikh, and a firm believer in the teachings of the 
Sikh Gurus. He came in contact with the Gospel, however, and 
resolved to accept it. He made public profession of the Chris- 
tian faith, and was baptized by the Rev. Mr. Knowles. He now 
edits a Christian paper, which is doing excellent service in prop- 
agating the gospel among the Sikh people. The padre is tall, 
grave, serene, and in personal appearance as fine a specimen of 
the physical man as I have ever seen. 

We were to see nothing in Amritsar until we had taken tiffin. 
This must be in the good padre's own house. His wife and 
daughter were in Calcutta, and we saw only his beautiful niece. 

Amritsar, with its 134,000 people, and its important silk in- 
dustry, is the most populous and wealthy city of the Panjab. 
Its chief interest lies in its religious associations. It is the cen- 
tre of the Sikh faith, and has been the Jerusalem of the Sikhs 
from the time of the founding of their bizarre creed, in the year 
1574. The Sikhs are a protest against' the Hindu faiths. They 
start out with the idea that all idolatry is a crime, and for three 
centuries have stood up as strong foes of all the forms of Indian 
polytheism. Their Guru, or religious teacher, was Ram Das, and 
he was permitted by the Mogul emperor Akbar to found a city 
on this site. Hence, from here, as a sacred centre, the whole 
faith has grown, and Amritsar has become the shrine and glory 
of the Sikhs, wherever they are. 

Special ceremonies are employed to admit into the mysteries 
of the Sikh religion. Some of the Sikhs do not seem to care 
whether their children are admitted or not. There is certainly 
no increase of adherents, and the probability is that the body is 



THE GOLDEN TEMPLE OF AMRITSAR. 671 

declining, and that the faith is cherished chiefly as a magnificent 
and precious treasure, more valuable as a memory than as a 
source of future strength. It is associated with the military 
splendor of the Sikh dominion in the Panjab.* 

At the outer court we were invited to a seat beneath a tree. 
A servant of the temple came with slippers in hand for visitors. 
I had no hesitation in making the change, but was glad enough, 
after walking an hour in his bright slippers, on cold stone, to get 
back to shoes. One enters the sacred enclosure through the great 
gateway. Here, in an upper room, are kept the immense weap- 
ons which belonged to the Sikh chiefs when they were making 
warfare against the English for their faith and a home. These 
weapons are as ponderous as the heavy arms in "Warwick Castle. 
"What a story could these terrible instruments of death tell if 
they only had tongues ! One can read in a nation's weapons the 
story of its life and work. 

"When the English came, and the Sikhs needed to be conquered 
too, it was the most violent conflict which India had witnessed 
since the days of Clive and his French opponents. It was a 
hand-to-hand encounter. The end was a compromise. Then 
came an alliance, but, of course, with the English at the head 
of the government. The Sikhs were left, however, with a meas- 
ure of local rule, and with all their religious privileges undis- 
turbed. 

No wonder these Sikhs have put their death-dealing weapons 
in the gateway which leads to their sacred shrine. Theirs was 
the glory of steel. Out of the keen blade and heavy broad-axe 
they rose to existence and fame. Every page of their history is 
red with blood. 

But we are only at the gate of the Temple of Gold. The 
scene is dazzling in this bright Oriental sun. The tessellated 
marble floor is cold to our slippered feet. The air is fragrant 
with many rich perfumes. The artificial and rectangular lake, 
in the midst of which the temple stands, reflects the images of 
the gnarled and ancient trees which surround it, while the houses 
send down their shadows in brotherly and fantastic combina- 
tions. The gate moves slowly back upon its hinges, and we 
make our slippered steps over the graceful marble bridge tow- 

* Temple, "India in 1880,' 1 pp. 117, 120. 



672 INDIRA. 

ards the Golden Temple, which stands upon a platform in the 
middle of the miniature lake. And here we pause. 

This lake, according to the Sikh faith, is the ^ool of Immor- 
tality. He who looks upon it lives. But he who bathes in it 
enters the Sikh paradise. Wherever a Sikh lives, and whatever 
sorrow he has passed through, a sweet and holy calm comes over 
his troubled soul the moment he sees this silver surface, and be- 
neath it views the shadowy gold of his temple roof. 

The lake is kept free from all impurities. It extends in all 
directions five hundred and thirty feet. It is surrounded by a 
marble pavement, twenty-four feet wide, and tessellated, the 
ground stone being of white marble, but varied with other 
marbles of alternate black and brown. All these marbles are 
brought from the far-off quarries of Jaipur. Along this rich 
and spotless margin there grow trees, beneath whose shade many 
a worshipper lies, or sits, as his humor pleases him. It is difficult 
to tell in some cases whether he sleeps or wakes. His face, in 
every instance, is a picture of calm joy. If asleep, he knows be- 
fore he lost himself that he is near his sacred flood. If awake, 
he thinks of the Sikh heaven, where even the Golden Temple of 
Amritsar will be nothing compared to its great glory. On the 
outer margin of this surrounding marble pavement are charmed 
houses. Not every one may live here. The price of a house on 
the border of the Pool of Immortality is fabulously high. These 
houses have a style of their own, an individuality of taste being 
observed in the architecture of them all. They are kept scru- 
pulously neat, servants watch the front at all times, lest some- 
thing lie there which would disturb the sanctity of the environ- 
ment. They are the homes of the Sikh nobility and chiefs, who 
come here from all parts to worship and to live. I suppose that, 
like the Hindus in Benares, it is the dream of their life to die 
within sight of the glittering roof of the Temple of Gold. 

We now stand before the sacred shrine of the Sikhs. There 
are no images, not a single symbol of idolatry. The chief priest 
is seated on a rug of gold embroidery. He hands us each an 
orange, which it would not be courtesy to refuse. We ask him 
if we may see his sacred book — a copy of the Granth. With 
great courtesy he reaches beneath the low desk before him and 
draws out a package wrapped about with rich cloths. The sa- 
cred manuscript is unfolded, and he begins to read. The page 




'I ., , " [ Mj ,: } i W\ jp|| --'Wk&- 



THE GOLDEN TEMPLE OF AMRLT8AB. 675 

is beautiful. The volume is kept with most religious care, and 
after a brief reading from only one page the priest wraps it up 
again in the cloths and puts it away in its usual place. 

On another side of the main temple space, only a few feet 
from the chief priest, are the chanters, who sing the praises of 
the Sikh faith. Here are two expressions we heard : 

" The Hindu worships idols, and 
Therefore he is in error; 
The Mohammedan worships 
The prophet, and therefore he 
Is a false worshipper." 

Then come many expressions descriptive of the attributes of 
the one and universal God. This chanting goes on all day. 
When one class get weary others take their place. Pilgrims 
come and go all the time. I noticed the rapt attention of some 
who had newly arrived. Their faces glowed with joy and be- 
wilderment. Theirs had been a long desire. Now, at last, they 
see — perhaps for the first and the last time — the Golden Temple, 
of whose great glories they had heard from infancy. They fall 
flat upon their faces before they have fairly come within the 
shadow of the central hall, and lie motionless until reminded 
there is a nearer view and more to see and hear. 

The ornamentation of the Golden Temple is exceedingly rich. 
There is no image of beast or bird. But the figures are taken 
from the forest and the garden — flowers and vines playing the 
chief part. Gold is the ruling color. It is laid on heavily. 
There are other colors, however, but of a deep, rich, and mellow 
shade, to harmonize with the gold and the sacred associations of 
the structure. We ascend to the next floor, w 7 here we come to 
a corridor, which extends completely around the temple. Here 
we look out upon the beautiful lake, and then at the high gate- 
way, and the precious little connecting bridge, and the white and 
trim houses, with their venerable trees and marble pavements in 
front. It is a sight which has no parallel. All the sides of this 
Golden Temple are covered w T ith richly painted verses from the 
sacred Granth. The temple is itself a book. I suppose there 
is not a word in the sacred volume which is not repeated here, 
in some part of this sacred structure. 

Why is this the Golden Temple ? And why, when you once 



676 



INDIKA. 



see it, does it remain a perpetual vision in your memory ? First 
of all, because its upper roof is covered with a heavy plating of 
the finest gold. The elements have no power over it. There it 
has been shining on, from century to century, ever since 1581, 
the blazing sun reflecting its glory in the lake, and throwing its 
golden light fully on the eye of the pilgrim. 

The roof itself is broken into several, there being first of all a 
central one, and then about it a number of others. The upper 
corridors and balconies have their roofs, the whole forming a 




BEATEN WOKK IN COPPER FOR THE "GOLDEN TEMPLE," AMRITSAR. 



harmonious cluster about the one which covers the nave of the 
temple. There is, therefore, such a combination of golden sur- 
faces of the varied roofs that the sun's reflection is intense. The 
result is an effect on the eye which, once seen, is never forgot- 
ten. The broad walls, and even the sides of the stairways, have 
the same rich shading which makes the Golden Temple of Am- 
ritsar one of the most harmonious architectural creations in India 
or the world. It is not of large size. But one must always take 
architecture in its combinations. "With the gateway, the bridge, 



THE GOLDEN TEMPLE OF AMRLTSAB. 



677 



the lake, the surrounding houses, and the gnarled trees, the 
whole becomes more than a memory. It is henceforth a part of 
one's very self. 




SILVER NECK ORNAMENT, SIND. 



CHAPTER LXXVIII. 

THE MOHAMMEDAN COLLEGE AT ALIGARH. 

The Mohammedan is fixed. He is hard to reach. He makes 
no promises. The Hindu is pliable, and is ready for change. 
Knowing this difference in the races, I was quite well prepared 
for Hindu adaptations of English methods. But I was ill pre- 
pared for a formal, thorough, and elaborate grafting of English 
ideas on a Mohammedan stem. Of late years the Hindus have 
been getting ahead of the Mohammedans. The Hindu youths 
have surpassed the Mohammedan m all the competitive exami- 
nations, and are crowding them out. This fact has given rise 
to the impression now prevailing, that the Mohammedans are 
declining in wealth and numbers, while the Hindus are advancing. 
This, as much as anything else, has led Mohammedan thinkers 
to adopt reformatory methods to elevate their young people, and 
to adapt Islam to modern conditions.* 

I had heard of the celebrated ^Mohammedan Anglo-Oriental 
College in Aligarh, and was anxious to see it. By cutting off 
an hour here and another there, and doing an improper amount 
of early rising and night riding, I gained a half-day, and spent 
it here. 

This institution is an educational phenomenon. It is more — 
it marks a new epoch in the history of Islam. It is a great edu- 
cational establishment, which has grown out of the brain of one 
man, Sayad Ahmad Bahadur, a learned and venerable Moham- 
medan. Much care was taken by him in paving the way for 
the institution. In 1870 a committee was formed for the diffu- 
sion and advancement of learning among Mohammedans of In- 
dia. They offered three prizes for the best essays on the subject, 
and the result was to adopt a proposal for a college. Its aim 
was declared to be the popularization of the study of European 

* Temple, " India in 1880," p. 113. 



THE MOHAMMEDAN COLLEGE AT ALIGARH 679 

science and literature among the Mohammedans in general and 
among the higher classes of the Mohammedans in particular, 
and to form a class. 

Say ad Ahmad differs essentially from some of his co-religion- 
ists. He regards Mohammed as only a man, with many infir- 
mities and no superhuman inspiration. Perhaps, if closely ques- 
tioned, he would make still further admissions. But when a 
Mohammedan once concedes that Mohammed was fallible, he 
brings down the Quran from its lofty place of indisputable 
truth, and reduces it to a purely human book. He may have 
nothing to say as to the Quran, but his view of the writer must 
disturb also the sacred character of his writings. 

This learned and very highly esteemed man conceived the 
idea that Mohammedanism, in its present exclusive shape, has 
no future. It is fated, and deserves to die, if it will not undergo 
modern renewals. There is enough in it to save it, but the Eng- 
lish ideas must be taken on board. By this process only can 
the vessel float. Now, to bring this about, a central and strong 
educational institution, with a broad and thorough curriculum, 
must be founded. There must be no scanty giving. Moham- 
medans, and such only as have caught the breath of the nine- 
teenth century, must be invited to contribute to its endowment. 
In addition to giving largely of his own means, Sayad Ahmad 
went south to the Nizam's dominions, and secured large gifts 
from the Nizam and his prime -minister, the celebrated Salar 
Jang. He also took upon himself the great burden of securing 
means from English gentlemen. He made no secret of his pur- 
pose. He wanted a great college established for the education 
of Mohammedan young men the world over. He travelled by 
night and day. He threw his entire time and wonderful energy 
into the undertaking. The result is the present large college 
in Aligarh. 

Sayad Ahmad wished no honors for himself. But he did desire 
to see his work a success. I had the pleasure of an introduc- 
tion to him, in his own rooms, in the main college building-. 
Here he lives, in the midst of the buildings which his own energy 
has reared, and in constant sight of the many young men who 
have come from every quarter of the Mohammedan world to 
secure an education. He is advanced in age. His face is a pict- 
ure of benignity and manly vigor at seventy-five. His beard is 



680 INDIKA. 

long and snowy white. In manner he is gentle and courteous. 
In speech he is deliberate, but not slow. He has been prompted 
by a desire to elevate his co-religionists of the Mohammedan 
faith, and, now that the work is well begun, he is spending his 
last years in handsome rooms in the main building, and holds 
merely a nominal official position, as honorary secretary and 
member of the managing committee. 

The real basis of existence of the college is the Mohammedan 
disinclination to attend the government institutions. The Hindus 
have not been opposed to the national schools, and are to be 
found in all the classes. They had been conquered by the Mo- 
hammedans, and were as willing to study English and such 
sciences as the English conquerors of the Mohammedans had 
brought with them, as to study Arabic or Persian. " The change 
of rulers made no difference to them, and they took to English 
as their ancestors had taken to Persian. But the Mussulman, 
who, notwithstanding the downfall of his race, had still sparks 
of ancestral pride in his bosom, looked with contempt upon the 
literature of a foreign race, opposed all reform, and ignorance 
contributed to encourage him in his opposition. He obstinately 
declined either to learn the English language or modern sciences, 
still looked up with veneration to those mysterious volumes 
which contained the learning of his forefathers, and reconciled 
himself to his position by a firm belief in predestination. The 
result was a great political evil. A large number of Hindus 
had acquired a knowledge of the English language and thus 
kept pace with the times, and some of them rose to the highest 
offices under the English government. The Mohammedans, 
on the contrary, remained stagnant, remembered with pain and 
sorrow the past power and prestige of their race, and still con- 
tinued to worship the learning contained in Arabic and Persian 
literature. The surrounding circumstances grew too powerful 
for them, and they gradually sank in ignorance, poverty, and 
degradation." * 

Here lies the whole secret of the distancing of the Moham- 
medan in India by the conquered Hindu. It is the old story of 
the final triumph of the conquered. 

In 1877 the foundation-stone of the Aligarh College was laid 



* The Pioneer, Allahabad, Sept. 4, 1875, 



THE MOHAMMEDAN COLLEGE AT ALLGABH. 681 

by Lord Lytton, Governor-General of India. In 1878 all the 
classes were in full operation. The college was affiliated to the 
Calcutta University up to the First Arts standard in the same 
year ; to the B.A. standard in 1881 ; and in Law, in 1883. In 
addition to buildings, extensive grounds, scientific apparatus, and 
other general needs, it was supposed that five hundred thousand 
pounds would be needed to furnish an income for providing for 
the teaching staff and other current expenses. This sum, I 
imagine, has been either fully raised, or so nearly that no anxiety 
is felt for the future of the institution. 

There are two departments to the college — preparatory and 
scientific. There are eighty scholarships, tenable for one year, 
and yet open for re-competition. They range from fifty to one 
hundred and twenty dollars in value. There are separate studies 
for the two Mohammedan sects — the Sunnis and the Shiahs. 
There are also thirty fellowships, which are conferred on the 
best of the honor men. The annual value of the fellowship is 
two hundred and forty dollars, and it is tenable for seven years. 
There are singular adaptations to the native mind, such as the 
cooking and eating regulations of caste, and the muezzins, or 
Friday calls to prayer. The Shi ah dons will go to mosque three 
times a day ; while the Sunni dons will not eat at the feet of an 
imam, or preacher, who knows the Quran by heart. But these 
requirements are only for Mohammedan students. There are 
Hindus and a few Christians in attendance, and for them all the 
honors and emoluments of the college are as fully open as for 
the Mohammedans. 

The management of the college rests on four committees — on 
instruction in languages and secular learning, on Sunni theology, 
on Shiah theology, and the managing committee, on which last 
rests the internal management of the college and boarding-house. 
On April 1, 1884, there were two hundred and seventy-two stu- 
dents in attendance. Of these, two hundred and one were Mo- 
hammedans, seventy Hindus, and one native Christian. Nearly 
all of the students are boarders. The examinations are semi- 
annual. Five students have already gone to England, and are 
in the two great universities, having finished the full course at 
Aligarh. 

There are twenty-four persons in the board of instruction. 
The principal, Mr. Theodore Beck, is an Oxonian. He was very 



682 INDIKA. 

courteous, and accompanied me over the grounds, and into the 
students' rooms and the boarding-halls, and explained all the 
details of the institution. The salaries range from ten rupees, 
or four dollars, to six hundred and fifty per month. Principal 
Beck receives the latter amount, besides ample apartments. The 
income for 1883, from all sources, was nearly twenty thousand 
dollars. The annual cost of a student in the college classes, in- 
cluding board, is about two hundred and fifty dollars per year. 
For all other classes the cost is far below this figure. There is 
a small sum which each boarder must pay for medical treatment, 
ranging from two dollars and a half to nine dollars, according 
to the grade of class. 

The students come from every Mohammedan quarter. The 
valley of the Ganges furnishes the largest proportion, for here 
are the descendants of the Mohammedan populations which were 
built up by the Mogul emperors, on their invasion of the coun- 
try. Then many students come from Southern India, the Nizam's 
dominions. But the territory lying between India and Europe 
is not without its representative. One student gives his resi- 
dence as Constantinople. I saw a number of the students, and 
had the opportunity of conversing with them. An air of cheer- 
fulness pervades the college. Chance led me to make inquiries 
of one, who was crossing the compound, as to where the prin- 
cipal's house was. He was very attentive, conducted me to the 
principal, and on the way explained, from a student's point of 
view, many things which I could not hope to learn from any 
officer. After leaving me at the door of the principal, that gen- 
tleman told me that my guide was the son of a Mohammedan 
prince, and a most worthy and industrious student. There was 
nothing in his manner or costume to indicate his princely be- 
longings. But that is precisely what might be expected. The 
search for knowledge is a republican process, in whatever land 
one sees it. 

I was greatly pleased with one feature of the Aligarh College. 
There is no concealment of the financial or other matters relating 
to its condition. The " Keport of the Progress of Education in 
the Mohammedan Anglo-Oriental College at Aligarh" is the 
finest specimen of a financial statement, combined with minute 
data concerning the courses of study, which I have seen any- 
where. It would be an excellent model for some of our Ameri- 



THE MOHAMMEDAN COLLEGE AT ALLGABH. 683 

can treasurers and other officers of colleges and universities, who 
imagine that the public have nothing to do with the details of 
financial management. Let the public know where money for 
a school comes from, and whither it goes, and they will intrust 
it with more. One of the curses of educational management in 
the United States has been its financial concealments. 

While the general tendency of such schools as the Aligarh 
College is elevating in a moral sense, it is far .removed from 
any. Christian element. The Literary Club at Aligarh was 
founded by Say ad Ahmad. It was established originally by him 
at Ghazipur in 1864, and in 1866 was removed to its present 
habitat. Its theology consists mainly of negations, and is a curi- 
ous medley : miracles are denied ; the deluge never took place ; all 
pilgrimages, except to London, Paris, or New York, are useless ; 
bleeding animals should not be used for food, strangled animals 
being preferred, as the blood can then be eaten ; polygamy is 
proper ; resurrection is natural ; there is no Mohammedan or 
any other heaven or hell, or a personal devil.* 

The principal, from my conversation with him, led me to infer 
that Biblical teaching has no place whatever. There is but one 
Christian in the whole body of students. It is a question whether 
this is the result or the cause of the absence of the Bible. But 
the Mohammedans and Hindus can, alike, see that the college 
itself is a concession to Christian ideas. It was organized on 
purpose to introduce modern Europe into the heart of old and 
dead Asia. The newest ideas from the Tyndall and Huxley 
laboratory will, of course, come to the Aligarh College, but 
there will be many who will ask, " What but Christianity gave 
England its quickened thought ?" 

. It is a question of only a few years when all the great schools, 
of every name, in India, will have a Christian basis. The press- 
ure from the missionary institutions is already very strong, and 
is increasing constantly. The time is sure to come when from 
the India to which England has borne her gospel and constitu- 
tion will come strong arguments for the Christian faith, to coun- 
teract some of the false teachings which are ever reappearing in 
Christian lands. 

* For an excellent description of Sayad Ahmad, and the general influence 
of his system, see article in Methodist Review, January, 1891, by the Kev. Henry 
Mansell, D.D. 



CHAPTEE LXXIX. 

THE RUINS OF FATHPUR SIKRI. 

The great Akbar pitched his tent for the night at the base of 
a lofty rock, which overlooked a stretch of country little less 
than fifty miles in diameter. This was in the year 1569, when 
he was returning from his triumph, over the revolting Uzbeg 
nobles. His empress was with him. The night became a day, 
and many. On the crest of the lofty hill there lived fakir Se- 
lim, who called himself also " Chisti," in honor of his spiritual 
father, a native of the Persian village of Chist. Akbar took 
such pleasure in the fakir's society that he allowed himself to be 
persuaded to make the hill his home, and rear, upon it, and all 
about it, palaces and mosques, and all the splendid structures 
which entered into the dream and state of an Oriental sovereign. 
Here a son was born to him, who took his place in history as 
the illustrious Jahangir. It is not surprising that Akbar and his 
empress loved this beautiful hill, and began to plan for its per- 
manent occupation. The holy man had revealed to them the 
divine purpose, that it should become an imperial residence. 
When the Mogul ruler and his empress began to breathe the de- 
lightful air, and witness the beautiful landscape on every side, 
we may well imagine that they took pleasure in every plan for 
carrying out their ideal of a favorite and enduring home for 
themselves and their descendants. 

The result of Akbar's plans is the Fathpur Sikri of history. 
To-day this city is as dead as Babylon. Yet it is safe to say 
that not in India, nor in any land, is there a more complete pict- 
ure of royal splendor three centuries ago than one can now see 
in this magnificent city of death and the dead. 

The ride to Fathpur Sikri from Agra is over a good carriage- 
road of twenty-two miles. My companions for the day were 
Mrs. P. T. Wilson, and a young friend of hers, a lady recently ar- 
rived from England. On the way out we passed the gardens of 



THE RUINS OF FATHPUB SIKRI. 



685 



the Begum Samru, or, rather, of her husband, the German Wal- 
ter Bernhardt, who died in 1778. This Samru was a desperate 
woman. She possessed the vices and desperate energy of the 
Oriental princess, and, to atone for her crimes, gave large sums 
of money for the founding of schools and a church. Near the 
garden is a cemetery, where the wife of the Emperor Jahangir 
was buried. Her tomb is a mere heap of ruins. The gardens 
were the scene of a terrible engagement between the English 
and the mutineers in July, 1857. The English were worsted in 
the fight, but the mutineers gained no permanent advantage, 




CHIEF MOSQUE OP FATHPUR SIKRI. 
(From Verestchagin.) 

for, with their usual want of leadership, they failed to follow up 
their victory. 

All along the road, on either side, there .are beautiful trees 
and a finely cultivated countr} 7 . The ground begins to ascend, 
and in the distance the great wall of Fathpur Sikri winds about 
the base of the palace hill, and climbs gently up its side. This 
wall was built by Akbar around three sides of his beautiful city 
of palaces. The fourth side seems to have been devoted in part 
to an immense body of water, where there was an abundance of 



686 INDIRA. 

fish, the catching of which was always a great amusement of 
the ladies and other members of the Mogul household. But 
there is no water now, and one sees only the general outline of 
the fishing-tank. The city wall, however, still stands. No city, 
not even Constantinople itself, has preserved a better wall than 
this dead capital presents to-day. Even the coping, with its per- 
pendicular slits, where guns could rest, is entire for many a long 
reach. The city, as such, is nowhere to be seen. It is gone, and 
its site is occupied by fields and orchards and gardens. But the 
great imperial buildings which covered the hill still stand in 
silent splendor. One can see just where this city of palaces and 
of mosques once stood. It was all within the wall, one gate of 
which is three miles from the opposite gate. The city, then, 
was about three miles in diameter, with its outlying suburbs of 
lowly houses for the rude country folk. Heber recalls the re- 
semblance of the wall to that of Oxford.* But he adds that, 
when looking at the magnificent quadrangle of the present 
Fathpur Sikri, measuring five hundred feet square, in size, ma- 
jestic proportions, and in beauty of architecture, there is nothing 
whatever in Oxford comparable to it. "With wonderful energy 
the Emperor Akbar, in the intervals of his wars, built up house 
after house, until many an acre was covered with palaces and 
mosques, and every other building that could add to the splendor 
of his name and power. His empress, his daughter, his two 
learned friends, must each have a palace and a court. There 
must be stables for his elephants and camels. When his favorites 
died, there must be mausolea of untold magnificence reared to 
their memory. Even to his favorite elephant there must be 
reared a memorial pillar, which stands to this day complete. 

For fifty years this imperial city was the centre of Mogul 
power. Its name was the synonym of all that was splendid 
throughout the Oriental world. From its palace walls there 
rode messengers with imperial edicts which caused men to 
tremble from the vale of Kashmir down to the Yindhya Moun- 
tains and from Arabia to Burma. But the life of this wonder- 
ful imperial city was short. Whether it was the want of water, 
or the fakir's revelation that the emperor must not build a fort, 

* " Narrative of Journey through Upper Provinces of India," Lond. ed., 1844, 
vol. ii. p. 14. 



THE RUINS OF FATHPUR SIERI. 687 

or that some unaccountable caprice seized Akbar's mind, we do 
not know. At any rate, within fifty years from the time when 
Akbar pitched his tent at the base of the hill, and began the 
city, it was a hopeless ruin, and even Akbar himself left it, and 
made Agra his capital. Its mission had been fulfilled. Death 
had settled in it. During the reign of Jahangir, the successor of 
Akbar, the city was declared by Finch, the traveller who visited 
it, as even thus early, " desolate, lying like a waste desert, and 
very dangerous to pass through in the night." 

On reaching Fathpur Sikri from the Agra side, you enter 
through a magnificent gateway. The pavement is still smooth, 
from the wheels of three centuries ago. But there are no 
swordsmen to guard the gateway, and call out for a permit to 
enter the imperial portal. Only a few quiet vultures sit with 
folded wings and dull eyes, and look down upon the stranger. 
More splendid scenes their ancestors could look upon, in the cen- 
turies gone by, as couriers rode rapidly back and forth, and great 
pageants moved across the flint-paved courts below, when the 
multitudes went wild with joy. We drove across the first court, 
turned somewhat to the left, and halted in the space before the 
Daftar.Khana, the record-office of Akbar, and now the bungalow 
for the entertainment of travellers. 

To make even a hurried circuit of the buildings requires 
several hours. All the edifices are kept in excellent condition. 
The government has a good force of servants here, and they 
are under careful supervision. Wherever there is danger of a 
falling pillar, or any damage from time, or any other cause, 
the defect is immediately attended to. The courts and pave- 
ments are neatly swept. All the grounds are neat and clean. 
The structures are of red stone. The geologist would probably 
call it sandstone, but some of it is of such fine quality that it ad- 
mits of a polish almost as finished as that of syenite. While the 
prevailing color is red, there is a variety of rich shades. The 
Indian climate is withering to the human body, but is kindly to 
the stone buildings. Nowhere have I ever seen more beautiful 
creations, which have escaped the ravages of both climate and 
warfare, than these immense buildings at Fathpur Sikri. When 
the emperor ceased to inhabit them, there was no further ground 
for a city. Its work was done. And in all the wars since then 
there was nothing to attract an army. It is not likely that a 



688 INDIKA. 

single shot of stone or iron has been hurled against wall or 
mosque or palace in Fathpur Sikri for three hundred years. 

We took the buildings which lay nearest, and went through 
one after another, with not much regard to my guide-book or 
the venerable priest of the place who serves as cicerone. Akbar's 
khwab-gah, or sleeping-apartment, is reached by a stairway. It 
is a small room, only fifteen feet square, and is entered by a door 
on each of the four sides. Over the doors there are still legible 
the Persian inscriptions, beneath which the great king went to 
reach his sleeping-place. Great corridors run along each side of 
the building. But it is evident that they were only designed as 
places of promenade for the emperor and whoever might be per- 
mitted to approach his residence. Here one sees the ideal of an 
Oriental despot's residence. There must be, not one roof, be- 
neath which the whole court should reside, but many houses, 
separated by courts and colonnades and gardens and groves and 
fountains. There must be plenty of space. There should be no 
intrusion when one wished to be alone. Each empress and fa- 
vorite councillor had a separate establishment. Then, even for 
the officers of the emperor, there must needs be a separate palace. 
If he slept in one place he must dispense justice in another, and 
hold council in still another, and worshij) in a fourth, and bathe 
in a fifth, and meet his friends socially in a sixth. There must, 
by all means, be no monotony. 

]STear one of the palaces there is a large court, two hundred 
and ten feet long by one hundred and twenty feet broad, which 
is called the Pachesi, from its resemblance to a pachesi-board, 
the stones being so placed in colors that the Indian game of that 
name could be played there. One of the most elaborately carved 
palaces is that of Akbar's Turkish wife — for he was cosmopoli- 
tan in his selections — having a Hindu, a Turkish, and, it is be- 
lieved by some, also a Christian wife. The pillars surrounding 
the palaces of the Turkish wife are both double and single, the 
corner columns of the outer being double, while the inner are 
single. There is no space which is not carved with rare and 
beautiful figures. The designs are of fruits and flowers, and 
therein are seen grapes, pomegranates, vines of all kinds, indeed, 
every fruit and flower known to the tropical world. These are 
carved with great delicacy, in relief, upon the solid stone. 

There is variety of design everywhere. Few pillars are alike. 



THE RUINS OF FATHPUE SIKRI. 



689 



The. sculptor gave a touch to one which he did not to another. 
The roof of the palace consists entirely of stone slabs, which pro- 
ject downwards, and extend far out beyond the walls. They thus 
form a screen from the sun. On looking up, on the under side 
of these projecting slabs which form the eaves of the palace, one 
finds that every inch is delicately carved. The figures are as 
finely cut, and in almost as good preservation, as the day when 
Akbar's artists took down their mallets and chisels from this 
finished £em. 







HOUSE OP BABUL, IN FATHPUR SIKRI. 
(From "Veres tchagiii.) 



On entering the palace the scene almost defies one's vision. 
Each wall is a study in itself. It is carved from floor to ceiling, 
while the ceiling itself is of solid stone slabs, and all their sur- 
face is covered by rich carvings in bold and beautiful relief. The 
whole palace, which really consists of but a single room, is a per- 
fect gem of sculpture. But now it is only a desert place. Its 
most frequent visitor is the Christian missionary. 
44 



CHAPTER LXXX. 

THE PALACES OF GWALIOR. 

Gwalior, as an illustration of the ancient Jain worship and 
architecture, is the most interesting city in existence. It lies at 
a distance from all the regular railway lines. The most conve- 
nient point for a visit is Agra, from which a slow and poorly 
managed branch road, of sixty miles in length, goes almost to 
the base of the great acropolis. On that lofty height the pal- 
aces and temples of Gwalior stand in all the eloquence of sculpt- 
ured stone. To the student of Indian history this place has a 
world of meaning. Out of the level plain there rises abruptly 
> this bold hill of about two miles long and an average width of 
a quarter of a mile. On one side the red sandstone cliffs are 
almost perpendicular. The surface of the great hill has been 
scarped in the long-gone ages, to make it the shapely pedestal 
for palace, temple, and troops. No large city ever shone here 
in the early sunlight. Only the royal, priestly, and military 
classes might live, in indescribable splendor, on this great height. 
The city of Gwalior lay below, just under the shadow of the 
beetling cliffs. There is still a city down there, while the mas- 
ters live above, and look off on the charming landscape. But 
this time it is not the old Mogul masters. The English are here, 
and rule all. The smooth throats of their guns, which look over 
the long parapets of this wonderful acropolis, are of such iron 
eloquence that no disturbance ever occurs among the native thou- 
sands who sleep beneath them. 

The mutiny of 1856 ran wild in Gwalior. It had a long and 
tenacious life. Perhaps it was the incomparable character of 
the fortress ; or, possibly, the peculiarly hostile spirit of the na- 
tive population, that accounts for the malignity of the opposition 
to English rule. But this much is certain, that long after Agra 
had surrendered, and even after the Delhi gate had been assaulted 
and battered to pieces, and the brave English troops rested not 



THE PALACES OF GWALIOB. 693 

until they reached the Mogul's palace, and feasted their eyes 
once more on the Peacock Throne, Gwalior still defied English 
arms, and even threatened to turn the tide in favor of the Sepoys. 
The little Presbyterian church in the plain below, about three 
miles from the base of the Gwalior height, contains tablets in 
memory of the butchered British soldiers. Then, at various 
points, there are three other cemeteries, all of which abound in 
little mounds, with memorial tablets, where the dust of slaugh- 
tered English soldiers rests. For the deliberate planning of the 
destruction of British rule, and for prompt and desperate meas- 
ures to make the plan successful, no place in India surpassed 
Gwalior. It was a military centre for English troops, and yet 
so adroit was the scheme, and so well disguised was every rebel- 
lious measure, that the mutiny here was as sudden as a clap of 
thunder in a clear sky. 

I left my luggage in the dak bungalow in Morar, and drove 
across the plain to the city of Gwalior. 

The natives are a curious folk. Some of them are adherents 
of the old Jain faith, which is now declining, like all the other 
lesser false religions of India. It has many points of resem- 
blance to Hinduism. It has its saints, looks forward to simple 
repose as the bliss of the future, and has such respect for animal 
life that it will not harm even the vilest reptile. Some of the 
Jain people, living in Rajputana, Gujerat, and Cutch, are among- 
the most active and successful business men of India.* 

Dirt prevails on every hand in the town below. The people, 
seeing I was a stranger, and from the West, were not very civil, 
and were little disposed to answer questions. I secured a guide, 
however, and began to climb the hill. No warder stands at the 
old gateway. The massive entrance is now as free as the very 
air. But one can see that the place had been carefully guarded 
in the old times. "Whatever might be the force, it does not seem 
possible that these great gates could ever have been battered 
down. Yet the hour did come when even they yielded to Brit- 
ish pressure. One gate, however, did not satisfy the sense of 
Mogul security. Should one be forced open, there must be still 
another beyond, with its bronzed keepers, to keep back the in- 
trusive force. But should this yield, what then ? Farther along 



* Temple, " India in 1880," p. 119. 
4dt* 



694 INDIRA. 

there was still another, and another, to the number of six in 
all — to guard the approach to the august king and fabulous 
treasure and awful temple. 

I had never seen any parallel in India to this wonderful posi- 
tion. In addition to what nature had done, the lords of this 
great rock had shaved it and grooved it and perforated it to 
such an extent that it seemed to be a very part of the firm earth. 
It is India's Ehrenbreitstein. In the elder days the ascent was by 
steps, cut in stone, with horizontal resting-spaces between its' 
flights. But in later times these steps have been removed, so that 
the ascent is now by an inclined plane. The constant climbing 
is no easy task, especially when one remembers that the sun 
shines all the year round on this great boulder, and so heats it 
that the reflected heat from the rock adds terribly to the di- 
rect rays of the sun. 

I was amazed at one feature of this ascent. There are altars, 
and in one case a temple, hewn out of the solid stone. In the 
temple are altars and images carved with great care, and grown 
old and worn by the long roll and grinding of the wasting ages. 
The entrance to some of the altars is easy enough, only the deflec- 
tion of a few steps from the main road being needed to reach 
their curious portals. But less easy is the way to others. I 
turned from the general road and followed little grooves in the 
side of the rocky hill, and crossed shaky and labyrinthine foot- 
bridges, and by and by reached the curious excavations where 
people worshipped in ages long since gone. Each one of these 
cave-altars has its sacred associations, its special deity to guard 
it, and its long and marvellous history. Flowers lie upon the 
pathway and on the sanctuary, which show how strong the hold 
of the past is on the pagan people of the present. The temple 
bears the name of the Shrine of the Four-Armed, having the 
date Samvat 933, which is equivalent to a.d. 876. There are 
colossal carvings along the side of the rock, some of single figures 
and others of groups, but all of hardly a later date than a thou- 
sand years ago. All are curious remnants of the Jain faith. 

When the climb to the top of the hill is nearly finished, the 
broad road by which one has come brings him directly up to the 
portal of an immense palace. You enter the curiously carved 
vestibule, and find yourself within the precincts of what must have 
been one of the most mag.nifioent palaces of ancient India. This, 




FACADE OF THE PALACE OF FAL, GWALIOR. 



THE PALACES OF GWALIOR. 697 

however, is only one of six palaces. Their majestic and richly 
ornamented walls once adorned a good part of the whole plain 
of the acropolis. This lofty hill, with its foundations of firm 
rock, was too commanding and secure for one palace. Succes- 
sive dynasties saw in it the best place in all their realm for a res- 
idence, and here they lived and reared their families, and down 
this worn way they marched to foreign wars. 

The palaces are now in all stages of decrepitude and ruin. 
Here is the Man Palace, which hangs on the verge of the preci- 
pice. It is also called the Chit Mandir, or Painted Palace, for 
all along its facade there once ran rich tiles, which the artists of 
the Mogul era knew how to make to perfection. This is a pal- 
ace of grandeur and horrors. It is two stories below ground 
and two above. I was as curious to see the subterranean 
chambers as the upper. My guide was well acquainted with the 
place, and I was satisfied that he was giving me the full benefit 
of his knowledge. After completing the circuit of the first 
story below ground, I descended a gloomy, spiral stairway to 
the floor below. Every chamber had been cut out of the solid 
rock. All the foundations being of native stone, no hall or 
chamber could be made except by the pick. As to explosives, 
so far back was the time when these excavations were made 
that such a method of loosening native rock was not thought 
of. Indeed, gunpowder had, probably, not been invented at 
the time. In one of these lower chambers there is a central 
pillar of the native stone left by the diggers, which is exquis- 
itely carved, and from its capital beautiful archways shoot out to 
all the angles of the room. It has the appearance of a Gothic 
chapel, and yet its builders probably knew no more of the Gothic 
arch and its luxuriant floral wreath than of the Coliseum. 
This was probably a special dungeon for peculiarly dangerous 
state prisoners. It is now the home of bats and vermin. ]STo 
groan from these deep places could ever reach an ear above the 
ground. I was glad to get out of the awful place into India's 
dazzling sunlight. 

]STow this one palace must have been a thing of marvellous 
beauty in its day. Its outer walls are so nearly complete that 
one can see precisely what they once were. Along the edge of 
the precipice the front wall runs three hundred feet, while the 
breadth of the palace is one hundred and sixty feet. But this 



698 INDIRA. 

is no bare wall. It was of wild and varied beauty. From its 
windows the view upon the plain below was exceedingly be- 
witching. Little balconies of stone, finely carved and cut through 
into figures of delicate proportion, hung from the walls like 
jaunty tufts of richest lace. Here the members of the royal 
families, century after century, used to sit and catch the even- 
ing breath which always swept over this charming hill. The 
palace-wall has five round towers, with open domes for cupolas, 
and a battlement of open stone lattice-work running the whole 
length, and binding the towers into perfect union by the marble 
fringe. The rooms of this palace are as beautiful and rich as 
the outer adornments, and are arranged about two courts. 

It was a habit of the Gwalior kings, whenever they built 
another palace, either in honor of a new wife or a new victory, 
or as a pleasant investment of money taken from a decapitated 
prince or two, to connect the new palace with the old by long 
galleries. The space on the Gwalior acropolis was none too 
large, and galleries supplied in a measure the dearth of road- 
ways. There were many hundreds of people connected with 
each court, and we have only the palaces, the mere shells, to 
suggest the splendor in which they revelled. 

The Palace of Yikram lies between two other palaces, the 
Karan and the Man, and is connected with them by a narrow 
gallery of twelve hundred and ten feet in length. Over the 
great hall there rises a dome, whose support is furnished by 
eight springing ribs, four rising from pillars, and four from the 
angles of the building. The Shah Jahan palace also overhangs 
the cliff. Its proportions were vast enough to satisfy even a 
Mogul emperor, for it was over three hundred feet long, and 
nearly two hundred feet wide. 

These palaces represent all the stages in the glory and decline 
of wonderful Gwalior. When the cit} r at the base of the scarred 
and ornamental cliff arose, no historian can tell. But in the 
days when the palaces were in all their fresh and early beauty, 
the scene must have been bewildering. Here sat, in the cool 
stone jalousies, little groups of gay members of the court. Old 
warriors sauntered along the galleries, and told of battles won 
and of the capture of crowns whose gold frames were invisible 
beneath the banks of diamonds. All was quiet. . The emperor 
must not be disturbed. But when he had slept out and made 



THE PALACES OF GWALIOB. 699 

his appearance, there was a hush and awe which pervaded every 
place in all these splendid dwellings. The more distant drill- 
ground was every day the scene of magnificent display, and 
here the emperor would come out and take a hasty glance. This 
was his bit of machinery, by which he gained his gold and con- 
quered provinces and chopped off royal heads. The morning 
sun blazed on these palaces, and the glare of the richly glazed 
tiles, whose figures revealed patterns long before grown old in 
Persia, was dazzling to every eye. The muezzin called to wor- 
ship from the lofty minaret near by, and for a time all was 
silent in court, on parade ground, and in the palace halls. Noth- 
ing disturbed the stillness of the hour but the constant splashing 
of the marble fountains. The air was filled with the perfume 
of rare flowers, which grew in plenty on open swards and hung 
in frames from many a courtier's window. 

This went on for long centuries, even before the Mohammedan 
broke in upon the royal silence here. Hindu kings had revelled 
in splendor on the acropolis of Gwalior. The place had grown 
from a wild waste, the lair of the tiger, the lion, and the boa, 
into a scene of splendor which vied even with the Fort and Taj 
of Agra, and the palaces of Delhi and Lahor. 

Three Asiatic authorities try to account for the origin of this 
weird place. The bard Kharg Eai, living in Shah Jahan's reign, 
says that the city at the base of the hill was founded thirty cen- 
turies before the Christian era. But the more likely time is that 
of Fazl Ali, adopted by Hiraman, Tieff enthaler, Wilford, and 
Cunningham, who place the date at b.c 275. The story of the 
foundation is that Suraj Sen, a Kachhwaha chief, who was a 
leper, and was out hunting, came upon this hill, and was very 
thirsty. A hermit, Gwalipa, gave him some water, which cured 
his leprosy. In return, the mighty hunter built here a fort and 
began his reign. The hermit gave him a new name, Suhan Pal, 
and told him that his dynasty should be on the throne as long 
as his descendants should be called Pal. This was the beginning 
of a line of eighty-three kings. But the eighty-fourth called 
himself Tej Kara, and so lost the kingdom. There are historical 
data of three dynasties— the Kachhwaha, the Parihara, and the 
Tomar. These were the Hindu rulers, but when the Moham- 
medan came and swept everything before him, Gwalior became 
a part of his possessions. It surrendered to the sultan Mahmud, 



700 



1NDIKA. 



a.d. 1023.* He converted the palaces into state prisons. But 
in time the old splendor revived, and Mogul palaces repeated in 
even greater magnificence the imperial homes of the Hindus in 
the zenith of their glory. The Marhattas afterwards captured 
Gwalior, and defied all invaders. 

* Meadows Taylor, "Student's History of India," p. 83. 




A PILGRIM CARRYING RELIGIOUS RELICS. 



CHAPTER LXXXI. 

THE TEMPLES OF GWALIOR. 

The wonderful temples on the Gwalior acropolis fully equal 
the palaces as memorials of a distant past. "Worship comes be- 
fore thrones. The temples of Gwalior point to a much earlier 
date than the oldest palaces. The latter are grouped within a 
comparatively narrow space, and when one has passed beyond 
them, still following the main road which runs along the crest 
of the acropolis, he comes within the reach of the old, old tem- 
ples. Everything reminds one of the gods. Here are eleven 
temples, which, like the palaces, are in all stages of decay. 

The Teli Mandir is a fair illustration of the way in which the 
English keep up -these priceless ruins. This temple is in the 
centre of the plateau, and is surrounded by a charming garden. 
I have nowhere seen a more beautiful suggestion of the Clugny 
Museum. Here, about the central structure, one does not find 
the venerable trees and the broken and picturesque surface 
which he sees in that calm and beautiful place in the heart of 
the Latin Quarter of Paris. But he has, in the Indian coun- 
terpart, great compensations. There are walks running out in 
various directions from the Teli Mandir, forming a piece of rich 
tracery, on which the eyes can feast for many an hour. The 
very vases at the angles, out of which grow plants of rare fra- 
grance and beauty, are themselves fragments of temple urns, or 
the richly carved capitals of palace or fane, hollowed out to re- 
ceive the burden of luxuriant flowers. Here is a Hindu goddess, 
converted into a standard for a rose to climb on. Then, all 
along the walks and out on the green sward, there are frag- 
ments of stone from the elder days, containing perfect inscrip- 
tions. Some of these tell-tale words recall times a thousand 
years ago, when the now ruling Englishmen was just emerging 
out of Saxon savagery. There are neat plates attached to every 
antique object, giving its name, origin, and the finder. Nearly 



702 INBIKA. 

everything lying about this temple, in this picturesque way, has 
been gathered hereabouts, either on the plateau or around the 
base of the hill on which palace and temple once stood in all 
their wild splendor. It is worth a sail to India to see this pict- 
ure of fragments from ruins so arranged as to dazzle or enchant 
by their strange combinations. 

But the greatest of all the points of superiority of this Indian 
Clugny above the French lies°in the central edifice, the temple 
itself. It was never of vast dimensions. The taste of the age 
in which it was reared — say a.d. 800 — was not towards great 
spaces, but massive walls, minute sculpture, and prominent 
height. The Teli Mandir is only sixty feet square, with a rich 
projecting portico of eleven feet. But the walls, which incline 
inward as they ascend, rise to a height of eighty feet, and then 
meet at a ridge of thirty feet in length. The thickness of the 
walls, the sweep of the great arches, and the exact and endless 
sculpture, are simply overwhelming. You stand on the thresh- 
old and look out upon the surrounding garden, with its wealth 
of perfume and beauty, and ancient Hindu statuary of gods and 
men. Chains, hanging in graceful festoons from posts made of 
ancient pillars, guard all. 

The grounds, with their profusion of ruins and flowers, are a 
fit frame for such a picture as you are now to see. The doorway 
is thirty-five feet high, and the grave, calm god Garuda looks 
down in stone from the centre. The object of this temple, once 
dedicated to the worship of Vishnu, but since the fifteenth cen- 
tury sacred to Siva, seems to have been the embodiment of mirth. 
There, in relief upon the walls, are dancing and singing gods. 
The swaying palms in stone, the cheerful scroll-work, the thou- 
sand tricks of the long-dead sculptor, were all designed to add 
to the glory of this remarkable structure. No wood is to be 
seen now, and probably there never was a piece permitted to 
form a part of the permanent belongings of the temple. Only 
stone was worthy of the god. It must be such stone, too, as 
had a face hard enough to bear the images from nature, and the 
ruling creed which it was "supposed would last as long as India 
itself. 

Of all the temples, however, I was most impressed by the Sas- 
bahu and Sahasra-bahu, or the mother-in-law and daughter-in- 
law. They stand together near the edge of the cliff. They are 



THE TEMPLES OF GWALIOR. 705 

sometimes called the " Temples of a Thousand Arms." One is 
larger than the other, and an inscription inside one of the porti- 
coes places the date at a.d. 1093. But who knows the date? 
This temple is probably a new one, on the site of an older, built 
when Time was young. The larger temple is one hundred feet 
long and sixty-three feet broad. The top is now gone. The 
present height is only seventy feet, but when in a perfect state it 
must have been one hundred. One gets lost in wonder as he 
stands in front of this strange building. The temples of South 
India appalled me by their great spaces, their glittering pagodas, 
their wandering elephants, their crowd of worshippers, and the 
wealth of the shrines. But there was no grandeur in the archi- 
tecture. The Gwalior temples are of a different order. The 
Mohammedan conquerors may have done some mutilation ; but 
they have been forbearing, after all. One can still see, from the 
majestic ruin, what the temple was in the days of its grandeur. 
There is no petty architecture, no poor material, no common 
device. 

On either side of the grand portal there are inscriptions dat- 
ing from the primitive Hindu period. Even the doorsteps have 
been cut into rich tracery, a fit entrance into the central hall of 
the sacred building. On either side of the steps leading up to 
the great platform on which the temple stands there are nine- 
teen figures, all in stone, asportce to the fane. The temple is in 
two stories. The main lower hall has four immense pillars, on 
which the upper story and the pyramid which constitutes the 
roof are supported. Now, when we remember that here, as in 
the Teli Mandir, there is not a particle of wood, that even the 
beams and girders and floors are of hewn stone, the size of these 
four central figures must be enormous. Yet the sculptor and 
the architect must combine their wisdom to soften down the 
massiveness. There must be no clumsy effect. Hence these 
pillars, which are rectangular — for there are no curves here — are 
divided into perpendicular lines of carvings. On each one of 
these are twenty rows of these rich figures, running all the way 
from floor to capital. I counted, on the four sides of one pillar 
alone, sixty independent figures. Around the walls are bands 
of stone figures, the whole forming a luxuriance of carving such 
as one could hardly find a parallel to, even in India. 

One wonders if, somewhere in this majestic temple, there is 
45 



706 INDIRA. 

not, by way of variety to the splendor, some calm and vacant 
space on pillar or wall. But no. There must be nothing lost. 
Each fragment of stone must tell its tale of faith and art. The 
spaces above are fairly alive with stone figures and rich carving. 
The ceiling of the lower story is concave, and is the interior of a 
vast dome. Now this dome is formed by belts of solid stone, 
the higher and narrower overlapping the lower and larger ones, 
until the highest point is reached. Each of these belts — and I 
counted twenty of them — is elaborately carved with figures, and 
done in the early period, when the Hindu imagination was wild- 
est and most wayward, and the artist's hand ran out without re- 
straint into the most ornate fields. Here, in the heart of the 
temple, is the adytum, and on the carved doorway which admits 
to it I counted no less than ninety-four figures. In number of 
designs, in minuteness of carving, and in delicacy of finish, they 
are a fitting culmination to this whole paradise of rare work in 
stone. 

The mouldings, on every side, combine both beauty and strength. 
They are rich and bold, and at the same time as delicate as a piece 
of Genoese silver filigree. All ideas of clumsiness, which came 
to my mind when I saw these temples first in the distance, had 
now disappeared. "What with the surfaces being filled with fig- 
ures, and the massive pillars containing many, so cut as to have 
a heightening effect, the result must have produced in every one 
who lingered in this abode of Hindu art the impression that 
he was in the midst of as graceful and symmetrical a structure 
as human feet could walk over. 

We now come to the third striking; feature of this wonderful 
place. There are two main roads which lead to the top of the 
acropolis. Suppose there was a road ascending from the city 
side of Athens directly to the top of the acropolis, about mid- 
way its length. The ascent would be difficult, and so the road 
would have to be grooved along the native wall. This road, 
with the one already on the opposite, or country side, and run- 
ning up where the Odeon is, would form a complete picture of 
the two roads which ascend to the plateau of the acropolis of 
Gwalior. Supposing we were to ascend the Athenian acropolis 
on the city side, and all along the road, cut deeply in the walls, 
were cave temples, where men worshipped when Hesiod had not 
yet touched his harp. This is a picture of the temple and altars 



THE TEMPLES OF OWALIOB. 707 

along the road up which I had come to the top of the Gwalior 
acropolis. But what of the road on the other side ? Now came 
another revelation — colossal figures, cut out of the solid, native 
rock, and left here. Some were mutilated by the Mogul em- 
peror Babar, in the year 1527. But, for the most part, these 
figures still remain in their original completeness. I descended 
this road a long distance, and at every group of the immense 
figures I saw something new and entirely different from the rest. 

These sculptures, cut out of the native rock, have no parallel 
even in India, either in number, finish, or size. There are five 
groups of figures. There are niches cut out of the perpendicular 
face of the rock, directly below the sharp edge of the plateau, 
and the figures are left in the middle of the niches. The native 
stone was cut away, and thus the figure came to its shape. I could 
easily get down from the road, and climb up to the feet of the 
figure, and go behind it. In some cases there was a natural stone 
bridge left in front of the figure, about even with the chest. 
This, no doubt, furnished a convenient scaffolding for the sculp- 
tor, and now it is the visitor's only pathway, by which he can 
get within touch of the upper parts of the great figure, and, by 
comparison, appreciate the enormous size of all these carvings. 

There are twenty-one different recesses or cavities, in all of which 
the colossal figures still stand, either singly or in groups. I judge 
that there can hardly be less than seventy-five figures, of various 
sizes and s3^mbolism. They range all the way from seven feet 
to thirty-seven in height. The largest figures are in a sitting 
position. The inscriptions and accompanying emblems fix ex- 
actly not only the date of their origin, but their significance. 
They were all made in the latter half of the fifteenth century, 
and are representations of the great pontiffs of the Jain faith. 
With the figure of each pontiff there is a shell, a lotus, a bull, a 
wheel, a horse, a goat, an antelope, a lion, a crescent, or some 
similar object, which was the sacred sign of the pontiff. These 
symbols are cut with the figures, so that one can tell whom the 
figures represent — whether Adinath, Nemnath, Supadma, Chan- 
dra Prabha, Mahavira, Kantanath, or some other one of the Jain 
immortals. The whole face of this side of the great acropolis is 
indented with these spaces, which were laboriously executed as fit 
niches where the leaders of the Jain faith might be kept in perpet- 
ual memory. The execution was rude and ponderous, but one must 



708 INDIRA. 

remember that for three centuries the storm of Mohammedan 
hate and the shocks of war have been beating about them. The 
wonder is, that even a single feature is left on one of these stone 
faces, and that the little bridges, whereon the sculptor stood, have 
not been knocked to pieces, to make complete the destruction of 
all memorials of the conquered race. 

Here, on this historical spot, where the English have dislodged 
the Mohammedan, just as the Mohammedan had dislodged the 
Hindu, and as the Hindu had dislodged the Aryan races, the 
latest of all this long line of conquerors are the only protectors 
of the great surviving memorials of all the former races. Every 
race but the Anglo-Saxon has been destructive. One has only 
to see the Aztec destruction by the Spaniards in Mexico, and the 
Portuguese in India, on the one hand, and the preservation by 
the English of the Hindu remains in India, to mark the differ- 
ence between the Saxon and the Latin. Had Clive never fought 
at Plassey, and Hastings never planned in Calcutta or Benares, 
there would be much less treasure for the antiquarian to-day. 
Throughout India the English government has paid great atten- 
tion to the care of the architectural treasures of all the provinces. 
Excavations have been made, old walls have been followed, tum- 
bling ruins have been supplied with braces and supports, and an 
air of brightness and comfort has been imparted to every part of 
the great structures. Conquered India owes to England the pres- 
ervation of her own best ruins. Often the English officers have 
had antiquarian tastes, and have not only carried out the orders 
of the government, but have given their work all the wisdom and 
inspiration which come from sympathy with the purpose. 

This has been manifestly the case with the Gwalior temples. 
It has been no slavish obedience to orders which has cleansed 
the buildings, and keeps them neat, and has surrounded them 
with gardens as rich as a piece of Teheran tapestry, but a cheer- 
ful seeking of the best ways to keep the treasures of the past, 
and let them have all the benefit of the sunlight of to-day. 

I lingered long beside the parapet of the wall which surrounds 
the acropolis of Gwalior. After wandering up one ascending 
road and down the other, and among the labyrinths, and out 
along the galleries of the palaces, and then loitering in the grand 
temples, I was glad to drop down in a little niche in the wall, 
and look off upon the enchanting valley with its lengthening 



THE TEMPLES OF GWALIOB. 709 

evening shadows. It was near sunset, and the valley and the 
distant hills were all ablaze with the evening glow. When there 
is no rising haze from the valley, one can see the immense tem- 
ple of Sahamiya, thirty miles in the distance. Far away, too, 
*were the red hills of Dholpur, while near by, just at my feet, lay 
the busy Gwalior of to-day. The air was deliciously cool, and 
made one quite forget the heat and weariness of the day. My 
driver had been unwilling to come up through the old gateways 
and make the climb to the plateau, and was waiting at the foot 
of the hill. I had now to walk the entire length of the acrop- 
olis, and descend to the first gate, where I had left him. But 
the sun by this time was powerless, and the walking was no in- 
convenience. I dropped awhile into each convenient seat along 
the wall, and enjoyed the evening scene upon the valley below. 
Each little curve in the wall brought its changes, while the vary- 
ing glows of the sunset gave a wonderful coloring to the land- 
scape. I found, at last, m} T patien, driver. His horses, having 
had a long rest, now scampered swiftly down the historic hill, 
and over the streets of the modern town, and then out upon the 
country road. I reached Morar in due time, and found that in 
my absence other guests had arrived at the little dak bungalow. 
But my room, having been secured already, was at my service. 
I learned that a strong effort had been made to spirit it out of 
my possession, but the presence of a little baggage in it had 
probably availed as proof visible of its occupation by an earlier 
visitor. 




KING BIRD OF-PARADISE. 



CHAPTEE LXXXII. 

JAIPUR— A RAJPUT CAPITAL. 

On my way from the Northwest down to Bombay I had the 
opportunity of seeing traces of the old Rajputana civilization. 
The Rajput people resisted the Moguls with terrible earnestness, 
but in time were compelled to surrender. 

Jaipur, the modern Rajput capital, could only be enjoyed by 
giving it a full day. I was lodged in the dak bungalow, about 
a mile from the station, and had excellent accommodations. 
My first object was a drive into the city, and then a general 
survey of its exterior. For a regularity and breadth of streets, 
and for a modern and Occidental business air, I had seen noth- 
ing in India similar to this place. It seems to have taken its 
type from Europe, and yet one does not require long to see that, 
though the city is thrifty, and laid out after European models, 
the people who did it are thorough Orientals. The life is Hindu, 
though the home is Western. 

The books tell us that Jaipur was founded by the celebrated 
Maharajah Siwai Jai Singh II., in the year 1728. The modern 
date accounts well for the modern air. The truth is, the old 
Rajput life struck out upon a new line, and what was left of its 
wild and vicious nature, after the English had well overcome it, 
came from another place, dropped down here, built up Jaipur, 
and made it the capital of the Rajputana of these latest days. 

The Rajput wildness is everywhere apparent. Here, in the 
gardens of the native prince, is a vast tank, where lazy croco-' 
diles glide up to the surface and bask in the sun. The caged 
tigers are ferocious even for India. One great beast seemed so 
anxious to get a thrust at me that, in his frenzy, he caught the 
bars of his cage in his awful jaws, as if to tear them to pieces. 

The palace of the prince, or Maharajah, is unusually lofty, 
the structure evidently being modelled after English ideas. But 
the carrying out betrays the Indian workman. Rich halls, beau- 



JAIPUR— A RAJPUT CAPITAL. 713 

tiful balconies, and such rugs as only Hindu fingers can weave 
abound everywhere. The audience-hall exceeds all other apart- 
ments in palatial splendor. It is broad, and constructed through- 
out of white marble. The same native taste is visible here as 
everywhere in India— love of beasts and all forms of animal life. 
But flowers are equally prominent. The Maharajah of Jaipur, 
like native princes everywhere in India, has a garden of such 
rare beauty as to bewilder any eye. It is half a mile long, and is 
adorned with fountains, graceful palms of almost every kind, and 
a wealth of plants at once rare, beautiful, and of finest perfumes. 

I took special pleasure in visiting a collection of industrial 
objects, illustrative of the special wares of Jaipur and other 
parts of Kajputana. 

But I was all the while intent on the ancient Amber — the 
renowned capital of this clan of the Eajput people. For this 
journey of five miles up a defile in the mountains the Eev. Dr. 
Humphrey had engaged two elephants early in the morning, 
and by noon we were informed that they were ready. We could 
go in carriages to Chandrabagh. Once there, we found our ele- 
phants in waiting for us. The howdah, adjusted to the back of 
my monster, was too loose for very comfortable locomotion. But 
I was informed that it could not turn over, and with that im- 
portant communication I had to be satisfied. 

The elephant is a docile walker. Your driver, while the beast 
lies flattened out and his riders are climbing up his sides, has 
perfect control of him. When the people are seated, and the 
driver would mount to his place above the neck, he simply puts 
his foot on the ear of the elephant, and with the next bound is 
in his position. Then the great piece of jelly begins to sway 
back and forth, and nothing but a firm grasp saves you from 
being thrown violently forward or backward, according to 
whether the monster is rising on his fore or hind legs. Then 
begins your regular motion. You hold on still, for you are not 
sure of your place. But after the waddling of, say, half a mile, 
and you get accustomed to the motion of your animal, and be- 
come interested in the strange sights which meet you in the 
world beneath, at every lunge of the elephant you get bolder, 
let go your grasp, and are ready to eat your lunch, or throw 
down pice to the moving crowd of native children, or read your 
guide-books. By the time I reached the palace gate I found 
45— * 



714 INDIRA. 

myself holding on to nothing, and riding with as little concern 
as if the animal were only a Cairene donkey. 

The road is lined with Hindu chapels, temples, and lowly 
dwellings. Everywhere there is a rich interlacing of shrubbery 
and trees. Two ancient forts, now in ruins, stand out to the 
left. They were probably the outer defences of the palace. But 
this is a mountain passage, and not wide. Hence resistance was 
easy enough. The Manta tank, with its lazy alligators, is on 
the left-hand side of the road. By and by we reached the old 
city of Amber. We were out of modern times, and suddenly 
thrust into the remote Kajputana past. Many a time the storms 
of war have swept this place and the mountain - sides. The 
stately palace crowns the top of the mountain. It consists of 
a group of buildings — all palaces. The city below might easily 
be taken, but so strong were the outer walls and great gates of 
this wonderful group of royal houses that the capture of them 
was a most difficult task. These buildings have run their race, 
and, now that the English influence is felt in Rajputana, the na- 
tive princes have ceased their fighting, and the ruler of Jaipur 
lives in quiet down in the new city. 

The old Amber palace owes its historical interest to the feuds 
and bloodshed of the eight centuries that lie beneath the leaning 
walls and waste of bygone architecture which rest on the lofty 
hill. 

The Rajputs are a peculiar people. If we except the savage 
hill-tribes, they are the nearest existing approach to the Aryan 
conquerors of the original tribes in the far-back ages. Seven 
centuries ago, when the Mohammedans of Persia pressed down 
upon India, and were, at last, successful in uprooting the old 
Hindu life, they found the Rajputs in possession of the whole 
of Northwestern India. The word Rajputana is not the name 
by which the natives call this broad territory. Their name is 
Rajasthan, or the Country of the Chiefs. These people ruled 
over a country stretching from the valley of the Indus eastward 
along the Ganges, and southward far down towards Central In- 
dia, and westward well in sight of the Indian Ocean. But they 
were not one people in rule. It was a confederacy of clans, 
similar to the Germans in the time of Caesar, and the Scots in 
the time of Bruce. The process was simple. The chief of a 
sept, or clan, reached his throne by killing others weaker than 




DETAILS OF ORNAMENTATION OP TEMPLE OP KHANDARIA, 
KHWAJRAO, SOUTH OP PANNA, IN BUNDELKHAND. 



JAIPUR— A RAJPUT CAPITAL. 71 Y 

himself. He was on guard all the time, lest a heavier axe might 
fell him. In time he acquired a reverence strong enough to have 
his son succeed him, provided there was gold enough to bribe 
every fighter into his interest. 

But what should be done if there should be three or four 
sons ? Only one could rule. Yet the rest must have a place. 
One would go in one direction, and another elsewhere, and begin 
the killing process. By and by there would be success, but 
often failure. In time, the great territory was overspread with 
these septs, where blood-letting was the order of the day. There 
was time to build splendid palaces and populous cities. But it 
was the interest of all to keep the septs rather small. Each knew 
that if one became too strong and large it would lead to the 
absorption of the rest. All the great cities of the Gangetic val- 
ley, and those far to the northwest, almost to the Afghan line 
of our day, were built up by the Rajputs, and occupied by one 
clan or another, as their capitals and commercial centres. But 
when the Mohammedans came with hot blood and furious speed, 
they swept the clans, one after another, before them, and drove 
them down to the centre of India, where they came to a halt, 
and made a second line of defence, because of the granite fast- 
nesses which they seized upon and where they built new capi- 
tals. Lyall says : " The first Mussulman invasions found Rajput 
dynasties ruling in all the chief cities of the North, and over the 
rich Gangetic plains eastward to the confines of modern Bengal — 
at Lahor, Delhi, Kanauj, and Ayodha. Out of these great cit- 
ies and fertile lands the Rajput chiefs were driven forth south- 
ward and westward into the central regions of India, where a 
more difficult country gave them a second line of defence against 
the foreigners. And this line the}^ have held not unsuccessfully 
up to the present." * 

But we have reached the bruised and battered gates of the 
Amber palace. 

We are now walking over the stones w T here kings and court- 
iers and soldiers had walked for many a century. The chief pal- 
ace was the home of the Minas clan. But this clan was in deadly 
feud with the Kachhwaha clan. Fortune turned in favor of the 
latter, and they drove out the Minas, and took their country 

* " Asiatic Studies," pp. 182, 183. 



718 



INDIRA. 



and the palace. This was in the year 1037, and for nearly seven 
centuries, or until 1728, the Kachhwaha Rajputs feasted here, 
and swept down the gorge and out into the plain, in bright steel 
armor, and brought back rich spoils from many a battle-field. 
But when at last the greatest of all the conquerors came, the 
Englishman, the Kachhwaha Rajput saw that his day of resist- 
ance was over. He now played the diplomat, and said, " Here 
is an enemy it is of no use to resist. We will be his friend." 

This logic was eas}^, cost no blood, and saved the Rajput 
throne. These Rajput princes are still in power — or the sem- 
blance of it — to the number of eighteen. There were twenty in 

all, but the English absorbed 
Ajmir and Mar war. The re- 
maining eighteen are separate 
and independent states, but 
under English protection, and 
with a watchful English Res- 
ident near by, in every case.* 
The Maharajah still comes 
up to the old palace on special 
occasions. In the great court 
across which we walked he sits 
in state at the Dashara feast. 
A regiment of soldiers stand 
around the court, and one hun- 
dred buffaloes and five hun- 
dred goats are slaughtered on 
the spot, as a sacrifice to Shila Devi. A flight of steps leads 
up to a public audience - hall, where there is a broad marble 
platform, whereon the august and scarred kings sat in ancient 
times. There are pillars at each end of the platform, and be- 
yond them small rooms, with lattices, behind which the ladies 
might sit and watch the court pageants. The roof is supported 
by two squares of pillars, numbering thirty in all. Some of the 
pillars are of the red stone from the mountains near by, but the 
rest are of white marble. 

We passed from one splendid hall to another, then up wind- 
ing stairways into other chambers, all decorated richly, in the 




A RAJPUT HINDU, FROM MARWAR. 



* Pope, " Text-Book of Indian History," p. 28. 



JAIPUR— A RAJPUT CAPITAL. 719 

highest art known to the times. The Eajput, like all the Hin- 
dus, despised uniformity. Even his stairways must not be like 
each other. Little balconies must part company somewhere, if 
only in the unlikeness of a frail panel of filagree in marble. The 
usual Oriental fondness for minute mirrors is seen,- when little 
disks, no larger than a four-anna piece, are grouped into arches 
and backgrounds, and throw reflections in myriads on every eye. 

The Rajput had an eye to the picturesque. He was careful 
to have his windows so adjusted that the finest prospect could 
be enjoyed. From some of the balconies and windows in these 
palaces the prospect is wondrously beautiful. One can look 
down the gorge through which we had come, and see Jaipur 
spread out at its foot, and then the great plain sweeping far off 
into the distance, until it meets the horizon. All was peaceful 
enough now, but there had been times when anxious eyes looked 
out from these same windows for swift messengers, to bring 
news from the far-off battle-fields. 

The view of the mountain-peaks, in another direction, brought 
out what I could not hope to see from the back of my elephant- 
gray old towers here and there, on the hill-tops, which date from 
the feudal times of Rajputana. Each has its own story, but the 
most of them are lost to the memory of man. 

By descending the stairwa} r , and crossing the court, we came 
to the white marble walls of the Jai Mandir. The panels are 
profusely ornamented, some with mosaics and others with flowers 
in relief. The opposite palace is the Sukh Nawas, or Hall of 
Pleasure. Here is some of the trickery which was common in 
the elder days to take away the monotony of palace life. In a 
small and dark room, away from the more splendid halls, there 
is a painting of a goose and a space, made to represent a fire- 
place. It is not a fire-place, however, but only a channel for an 
artificial stream of water, which was made to flow at proper 
times. The doors are of sandal- wood, with inlaid figures in ivory. 
" The whole is a charming retreat in sultry weather," says East- 
wick. " The stream runs into an octagonal basin with fountains 
in the middle of the garden. The walls of this room and of the 
two vestibules are adorned with reliefs representing vases and 
urns for sprinkling rose-water, of various colors." * 

* " Handbook of Punjab," p. 150. 



720 INDIRA. 

I went from one building to another, and everywhere there 
were memorials of former grandeur. The very baths, of finest 
marble, were still entire and of great splendor. Here, as the 
centuries went by, these palaces had echoed with the wail of 
woe and the shout of joy. All phases of human life had been 
enacted here. But now the halls are deserted, except by the 
curious visitor from across the sea, or the rarer visit of a Rajput 
prince. The luxuriant creepers climb about the walls, and thrust 
their fingers into every crevice, and far up to the gay balconies. 
Nature, the young and the enduring, dallies with the marble 
creations of man the pilgrim. 

We descended the last stone stairway, and found our elephants 
in waiting. Soon they dropped on their knees, and we climbed 
to our places on their backs, and were borne down the hill tow- 
ards our carriages. 

We were compelled to hurry, for our dinner was waiting for 
us at the dak bungalow. Even that had to be a hasty meal, for 
we must catch the evening train southward. We had no sooner 
reached our inn than we were beset by a crowd of vendors of 
garnets and other stones, both polished and in the rough. The 
mountains about Jaipur are very rich in such precious minerals. 
The articles consisted of cat's-eyes and other attractive stones, 
some of them solitaires and others arranged in strings, and as 
pins and rings. I saw two beautiful necklaces of light-colored 
garnets, which attracted my attention. They would just suit 
two little necks I knew of in Rome. The vendors saw that I 
was fascinated, threw their glittering wares into the carriage, 
now in rapid motion, and ran up for their money. Of course, I 
had to buy. 



CHAPTER LXXXIIL 

A DAY IN AJMIR. 

The Hindu city of Ajmir abounds in most interesting his- 
torical associations. Like Jaipur, it was once the capital of a 
Rajput clan, but has now lost its independence. ]No native Ma- 
harajah holds the semblance of a court. The origin of Ajmir 
belongs to the gray past. If one wishes to see a city which was 
already ancient when Mohammed was born, and where the Ar- 
yans had built and lived long before the Hindus had taken on 
their modern organization, let him come to Ajmir and drive 
through one of the five gateways which pierce the stone wall, 
and meander through its narrow streets, and see the quaint 
homes of the packed thousands. 

The city lies in. a plain. On a hill, rising abruptly from the 
plain, stands the celebrated fort Taragarh. This hill dominates 
the far outlying region. The temptation to build a fort on it 
was too strong to be resisted, and so firmly were its walls plant- 
ed, and so steadily did all the defences grow with the centuries, 
that the history of this single fort is almost an epitome of the 
complete story of the great confederation of Rajputana states. 
Whenever the invaders of India gained a new foothold, their 
ambition centred in this castellated height. Those who could 
capture and retain it might well expect to control the whole of 
Central India. When the Afghans, under their king, Shahab- 
ud-din, entered India, at the end of the twelfth century, they 
marched straight on towards Ajmir and captured the great 
fort. But it was recovered after a short time by the Rajputs. 
The Moguls captured it again, and held it firmly; and in the 
seventeenth century it took its place with Agra, Delhi, and La- 
hor, as an imperial residence. But the Rajputs, although con- 
quered, were not obliterated, and in the great collapse of the 
Mogul empire they took back their hill and its fort, which from 
time immemorial had been identified with the fortunes of their 
46 



722 INDIRA. 

fathers. But the Marhattas, the fierce people who were preying 
on the Mogul empire, could not bear to see this stony fortress in 
Rajput hands. Hence they made a bold strike for it, and won 
it. But the fortress, with the city of Ajmir, was ceded to the 
English by the conquered Marhatta chief Sindhia, on June 25, 
1818. 'Now, from the lofty crest of the great fort the English 
flag floats. 

When Ajmir became an imperial residence of the Moguls, its 
power, already great, extended still more widely. The Rajputs 
are celebrated as the fiercest warriors of all India. Their deeds 
of heroism have gone into all Hindu literature and have floated 
into all the channels of Indian thought. For victory over ter- 
rible odds, and for ready death when the impossible could not 
be won, their fame is not surpassed by the prowess of Hermann 
of Germany or Harald the Fair- haired of Norway. Ajmir, 
when it fell at last into Mogul hands, received the special favor 
of the new chiefs. They seemed to regard it as their strongest 
point for defence on the southern side. The English caught 
knowledge of it, and to this far-off place James I. sent Sir 
Thomas Roe as embassador to the Mogul emperor, and to his 
account we are indebted for the many beautiful glimpses of the 
undisturbed Indian life of two centuries and a half ago. 

The Rajputs were no sooner conquered, and Ajmir captured, 
than the work of transformation began. The Mohammedan now 
busied himself to brush aside the Hindu life and especially the 
faith, and to establish here, on his southward march, all the 
splendor of mosque and service which he had left behind him in 
Persia first, and then in Labor, Delhi, and Agra. All that was 
needed in Ajmir was a good pretext for a magnificent mosque. 
This was furnished in the life and death of Khwaja Mayud-ud- 
din Sanjar Chisti. He was of saintly character, and died in a 
little chapel in the year 1235. Here on this spot must the great 
Ajmir mosque be reared. Temples there were already in great 
number, such as were built in the early days, when forced labor 
was the usage and the crime. But they were Hindu buildings, 
and could well be subsidized to add splendor and beauty to the 
mosque. The legend is, however, that the mosque was built 
miraculously, in two days and a half. Hence its name, Arhai 
din Ka Jhompra, or " Hut of Two Days and a Half." When a 
modern miracle is concerned, the question of materials is not im- 




THE PALACE OF THE SETHS, AJMIR. 



A DAY W AJMIB. 



725 



portant. The main hall of the mosque contains three hundred 
and forty -four pillars; and as they are nearly all of Hindu 
architecture, and have been introduced here from use else- 




BTTLLOCK FEEDING IN THE STREET. 



where, it is safe to accept Fergusson's opinion, that these pillars 
represent the spoils of not less than twenty or thirty Hindu 
temples. 



726 INDIRA. 

In entering a mosque I have nowhere been met with so bitter 
and offensive a spirit as here. So repellent was the manner of 
my guide, and so threatening withal, that I not only feared that 
I would not be permitted to see the interior of the celebrated 
building, but that 1 might be treated with violence. Perhaps 
there were no officers near by, to watch the native insolence. 
"Whatever the cause, it gave me a fair opportunity to see what 
sort of a spirit the Mohammedan can manifest towards an Anglo- 
Saxon when he has the power. These precincts are peculiarly 
sacred, and I suppose that the memories of former Mogul splen- 
dor here are not forgotten by the half-robed worshippers in the 
Hut of Two Days and a Half. 

After putting on flannel slippers I ascended a flight of steps, 
and then passed through the " Heat Expanding,'' a lofty gateway 
of about one hundred feet high. This admits to a court, where, 
on the saint's anniversary day, the multitude are feasted. There 
are two great caldrons, which keep their place the year round. 
One of these holds 6400 lbs. of rice and 2400 lbs. of oil. To 
this are added raisins enough to give a flavor to the whole. The 
other caldron is filled with 3200 lbs. of rice, 1600 lbs. of sugar, 
and 480 lbs. of butter, with a proper proportion of raisins and 
lemons. On the day when the public feast is given, the entire 
court is filled with a multitude of people. The caldrons, how- 
ever, furnish a supply for all. 

The mosque is of less interest than the rich screen. This 
singular object is not only the glory of the court, but a gem of 
great renown throughout .the Mohammedan world. It consists 
of seven arches, the central one rising to a height of nearly sixty 
feet, and lateral ones of less dimensions. They form, together, 
a picture of wondrous beauty. The screen is of stone. There is 
a combination of Kufic and Tughra inscriptions, with architect- 
ural decorations, in such delicate and skilful ways that the scene 
is bewildering. The architect, who is supposed to be Altamsh, 
the builder of the great mosque in Delhi, has thrown such light 
and beauty into this picture in stone that it is a marvel of Mos- 
lem grandeur and Hindu wealth of ornamentation. Fergusson 
says : "As examples of surface decorations the two mosques of 
Altamsh, at Delhi and Ajmir, are probably unrivalled. Noth- 
ing in Cairo or in Persia is so exquisite in detail, and nothing in 
Spain or Syria can approach them for beauty of surface decora- 



A DAY IN AJMIB. 727 

tion. Besides this they are unique. Nowhere else could it be 
possible to find Mohammedan largeness of conception combined 
with Hindu delicacy of ornamentation, carried out to the same 
extent and in the same manner." * ' 

I entered the great mosque by the majestic central arch. 
Here a most inspiring scene is presented to the eye. Pillars of 
the finest workmanship, and of all the Hindu orders, stand up to 
the right and left, and in front, and support a ceiling of recessed 
compartments, which add vastly to the grand effect. Cloisters 
stand back to the sides of the mosque. The ornamentation is of 
the finest kind known to the most glowing days of Hindu art. 
The work is as delicate as a cameo. No slip of the hammer or 
chisel can be found. It is all so deftly wrought by unerring 
hands, and with such overwhelming power, that one cannot help 
thanking the triumphant Moguls for preserving, though for a 
mosque, the forest of rich pillars which had been doing service 
in Hindu temples, probably, for a couple of centuries before the 
conquerors feasted on their beauty, and their strong will brought 
the beautiful sculptures into the new service. The variety of the 
designs in the figures on the pillars, but more especially in the 
recessed ceiling, is amazing. Nothing was allowed to be repeated. 
It must all be beautiful, but it must be a beauty from which di- 
versity dared not be absent. The spaces are enormous. The en- 
tire exterior dimensions are two hundred and fifty-nine feet by 
fifty-seven, while every art is employed to make the worshipper 
feel that he is in a much larger building than this. To ornament 
these great spaces, and give a rich decoration to the many pil- 
lars, was a triumph of the patience of genius for which even 
India, which surprises at every step, has few parallels. 

A loitering along the shore of the Pushka Lake, famous alike 
in Brahman, Rajput, and Mogul annals, and an evening service, 
with an interesting congregation, completed my day at Ajmir. 
The Rev. Mr. Hard, who was my companion during my stay in 
Ajmir, accompanied me to the railway station. The train ar- 
rived at a late hour in the night, and I was glad to find an empty 
compartment for my ride towards Ahmadabad. 

* "Hist. Architecture," p. 513. 



CHAPTER LXXXIY. 

AHMAD AB AD. 

I reached Ahmadabad early in the morning, and had ample 
opportunity to examine the city and its ancient buildings in the 
suburbs. 

About the latter half of the sixteenth century, Ahmadabad 
was one of the largest cities in Western India. In the splendor 
of its architecture and the wealth of its citizens, it was the Hindu 
Florence. From 1573 to 1600, it was " the handsomest town in 
Hindustan, perhaps in the world." Sir Thomas Eoe declared 
it " a goodly city as large as London." When the Mohammedan 
conquerors broke through the Indian gates, and reached this su- 
perb city, it is probable that they found a wealth of Hindu art, 
a finish and minuteness of decoration, and a breadth of architect- 
ural plan which had not met their gaze before. 

But nothing daunted, the Moguls began to convert this Hindu 
city into a Mohammedan metropolis. They reared mosques 
with a lavish use of gold, and with a boldness of design which 
it was hoped would far outshine the Hindu temples. In some 
instances, it seems, when the temple served for a good foun- 
dation, they reared their mosques and poised their graceful min- 
arets on the very site of the former places of worship, and made 
use of the rich patterns in wood and stone to complete the deco- 
rations in honor of Mohammed's faith. But in other cases they 
chose new places, and began on foundations quite their own. 

As a result, Ahmadabad is now a mixed city. The new and 
the old lie in closest brotherhood. The English rule has broad- 
ened some of the streets, and given a thrift and cleanliness which 
had not existed. But the two civilizations, Hindu and Moham- 
medan, are to be seen to-day in strange combinations. The 
waste of war has been slighter here than in most places which 
I have visited. The patient Hindu carver did his work so well 
that his Mohammedan conqueror was glad to spare it, and vex 




KANI SIPRI MOSQUE, AHMADABAD. 



AHMADABAD. f31 

it into service for his mosque and private house. One beautiful 
house, therefore, is the creation of one race, while its neighbor 
may be that of another. 

I drove first into the suburbs, and halted at the tomb of Shah 
Alam. This man, who died in 1495, was the son of a Moham- 
medan saint, who arrived at great fame as the spiritual guide 
of Mohammed Begada. When he died no pains were spared to 
make his tomb a fit memorial of him. Even to this day it is an 
exquisite piece of sepulchral architecture. The tomb of Shah 
Alam is only one— his family lie about him, in a house which 
might well be called a palace of the dead. You stand upon a 
floor of alternate tiles of white and black marble, and look up 
to a dome whose under surface is radiant with gold and precious 
stones. There are, about one tomb, three double-sliding brass 
doors, each with three panels of close work, which are of such 
delicate workmanship that one might well imagine them made 
in some fabulous smithy, where the forgers had a delicacy of 
final touch not known to men. 

The frame in which the doors are set is of white marble, and 
this, with other marble supports, is inlaid with pearl. Such of the 
marble as serves for screens is also inlaid with pearl, and pierced 
with instruments so fine that the spaces left appear to be a piece 
of frail and delicate lace instead of stone. The tombs are divid- 
ed from each other by finely wrought screens, where the Hindu 
ornamentation seems to have been preferred to the Moslem. 

The tomb is really too small a thing for the typical Moham- 
medan to spend his time upon. He is a child of the desert, and 
must have great spaces about him. He is no lace-weaver. In 
threading a needle and making fine stitches, and forming close 
meshes with silk as fine as cobwebs, the Hindu is master. But 
the Mohammedan is a great architect. His sculpture has spread 
from the Ganges to the Pillars of Hercules, and has thrust some 
of its most notable qualities into both the Gothic and the Classic. 
He rears on a large scale. His majestic domes and towering 
minarets and bold arches prove him the man of great plans. 

The mosques of Ahmadabacl are of splendid proportions and 
exquisite finish. The Hani Sipri, which was built in 1431, is a 
piece of rich and imposing architecture. The two minarets, about 
fifty feet high, have zones of fine Hindu work, reaching from 
the pedestal to the topmost gallery. They stand out alone, as 



732 INDIRA. 

warders to mosque and tomb. The stone lattice which encloses 
the tomb is composed of many patterns, each beautiful, and exe- 
cuted in the finest style. There is nothing in the elaborate wood- 
carvings of old Liibeck which exceeds the rich designs, wrought 
in stone, which one finds here. 

The most splendid mosque, however, is .the Jama Masjid. It 
was built soon after the Mohammedan conquest, and was de- 
signed to eclipse all other buildings in Ahmadabad. There is a 
corridor which has thirty-six pillars on each side. The facade 
to the mosque has a great central arch, and five smaller ones on 
each side, or eleven in all. The roof rises in one large central 
cupola, with fourteen cupolas grouped about it. The minarets 
were once large and imposing, but at least half of each has been 
thrown down by an earthquake. A forest of pillars, two hundred 
and sixty-four in all, rises at regular intervals, and supports the 
roof of graceful domes. Near the mosque, and within the spa- 
cious sacred enclosure, is the mausoleum of King Ahmad Shah. 
The beautiful portico, of eighteen pillars, is a fit introduction to 
this tomb of the founder of the mosque. Two other sarcophagi 
are near it. All of them are of finest "white marble, with re- 
liefs of Indian flora. 

Magnificent as all these sacred edifices are, the finest piece of 
work to be found in Ahmadabad is Sicli S'aid's mosque. One 
side of it forms part of the wall which includes the jail buildings 
of the city. The jail itself was not built for the purpose which 
it now serves. Once it was a palace, occupied by nobles from 
Delhi. Then it became an arsenal, and, last of all, the provincial 
jail. The mosque of Sidi S'aid was converted into an office, but 
the windows could not be allowed to remain open. They were, 
therefore, walled up. To this fact these five windows owe their 
preservation. They are of stone, and for minute and delicate 
work they are without an equal even in India. Fergusson says : 
" It would be difficult to excel the skill with which the vegeta- 
ble forms are conventionalized just to the extent required for 
the purpose. The equal spacing also of the subject by the 
three ordinary trees and four palms takes it out of the cate- 
gory of direct imitation, and renders it sufficiently structu- 
ral for its situation ; but perhaps the greatest skill is shown 
in the even manner in which the pattern is spread over the 
whole surface. There are some exquisite specimens of tracery 




- ' *■ ^j . , " f ' ,,r '^2SS" 



Jss 



Sfe^: 



f j - -...■-^--J "I v'< ''"" 




DETAIL OF RANI SIPRI MOSQUE, AHMAD ABAD. 



AHMADABAD. 



735 



in precious marbles at Agra and Delhi, but none quite equal to 
this." * 

I looked at these windows with amazement. Here is a great 
central tree of stone, with branches running out in greater and 
lesser curves, all graceful and some interlacing, until every part 
of the arch is filled with branch and leaf. Then, behind and of 
equal height, is a magnificent palm, at whose topmost frond 
there rests a piece resembling the front of a diadem. All this 




PERFORATED WINDOW, COPIED IN TEAK FROM THE WINDOW IN YELLOW SAND- 
STONE IN THE SIDI S'AID MOSQUE, AHMADABAD. 



is in stone. But the sunlight and the monsoons of the centuries 
have not injured it. Surely no chisel ever made rude stone re- 
late a more beautiful tale in stone than this. 

But everywhere in Ahmadabad one sees the minute splendor 
of the former times. Here, for example, is a private house where 
a balcony still stands which tells of the grand days. Some no- 
bleman lived here then, made rich because he had done much 



" History of Architecture," p. 533. 



Y36 



INBIEA. 



slaying while on the conquering path from the Northwest. It 
is a massive bracket, stuck against the wall, and swelling out 
into beautiful framework and wall and pillars, and a fretted roof 
which hangs down and over the entire balcony, and terminates 
in a piece of as fine work in stone and wood as ever left the dark 
rooms of the weavers of Brussels lace. Sometimes a shop is 
entirely modern, excepting a finely carved door or window, which 
recites its idyl of the grand days when the Mogul had not yet 
heard of the barbarian from the little island in the North Sea. 
"Wherever one goes, it is the same — temple, mosque, and private 
dwelling, all telling the same story of the old splendor. There are 
single doors in Ahmadabad, where naked children play in filth, 
and where the battle of all the inmates is for bread, which would 
dazzle and bewilder the keenest searcher for the beautiful and 
rich in manual art. 




CARVING ON THE BUDDHIST TOWER, SARNATH. 




BALCONY IN AHMADABAD. 



CHAPTEB LXXXV. 

BASSEIN— A DEAD PORTUGUESE CITY. 
History. 

The story of the Portuguese in India is a touching bit of 
wild religious romance. It is now an old affair, its very memo- 
ries being almost blotted out by the large later drama of the 
Saxon conquests and the recent firm and wise rule. The Portu- 
guese went to India for wealth. The idea of general conquest 
was never fully in their mind. But no sooner had they gained 
a footing along the western coast, at Goa, Chaul, and Bassein, 
than the missionary idea even superseded the passion for gold. 
Francis Xavier determined to win for the Jesuits in this land 
what had been lost by the Beformation in the heart of Europe. 
The scope of his plans was broad, while his energy hesitated no 
more in the presence of the pagan millions of India than if they 
had been a few scores of Mexican Aztecs. When he gained per- 
mission from the pope to establish missions on the Indian coast, 
he meant to supply to the rest of his Church enough square 
roods to make full amends for those which Luther had torn 
from it in Central Europe. 

What was India in those days ? An unknown land. Its 
boundless jungles had not yet been disturbed by the gun and 
dog of the European hunter. There was native splendor beyond 
all conception of the Occidental world. The tribes could destroy 
each other, and the great nations of Europe knew nothing about 
it. The Mohammedan, after many centuries of desperate effort, 
had at last crossed the Indus, and swept down its valley and 
that of the Ganges, and filed over the table-land to the south of 
them, and reached the narrowing of the peninsula, and laved 
in the equatorial surf at Cape Comorim He built up the great 
Mogul empire, which was now beginning to show signs of decay. 
The Portuguese trader came during this stage of decadence. His 



740 INDIRA. 

thought was for gold, and to take it back to Portugal and live 
behind his gilded jalousie in splendid idleness in his far-off 
Lisbon home. With him came the Jesuit missionary. Brazil 
is a strong American proof of how the two men combined for a 
complete conquest. Nay, there was sometimes added a third— 
the knight. Put these three together, and you have the whole 
secret of the Brazilian con quest. The same applies to the Spaniard 
in Mexico. The sailor, the soldier, and the priest, by a strong 
triple alliance, broke up the old life of the Aztec and the Inca, 
and built up that Spanish politico-ecclesiastical system which has 
only come to dissolution in our day. In the Indian case there 
were only two Portuguese characters, the sailor and the priest. 
The courtly knight— except Albuquerque and a few others — 
stayed away, except as governor and aide, to administer law in 
the name of the king. The romance was not wild enough to 
attract him. 

Goa was the great centre of this new Portuguese life in India. 
It lies about midway between the harbor of Bombay and Cape 
Comorin, and in the old days was a natural outlet for the pro- 
ductions of that broad and rich country which constitutes the 
Mysore. During the present century the railroad system of 
India has left Goa quite in the rear. It is a city of great ruins. 
It is only a memory. Just now, however, there are indications 
that the fine harbor will be utilized as a point of departure for 
a new railway for a new piercing of the Mysore. But if Goa 
rises as a commercial city once more, it will be at the expense 
of the great Portuguese memorials. The ruined cathedrals and 
monasteries must soon disappear. No one can now conceive the 
former importance of Goa as a great Jesuit capital. It was a Euro- 
pean fashion for long years to make rich gifts, from every part 
of the Roman Catholic world, to the institutions of Goa. Prince 
and peasant in Europe were induced to send thither their offer- 
ings, in the belief that nowhere was there a more promising field 
for the conversion of millions. One after another there arose 
in and about this vicinity buildings which would have adorned 
the broadest streets in Lisbon. Schools arose like mushrooms. 
Native children were gathered in from the outlying country, 
crucifixes hung about their necks, and they were taught the 
whole ceremonial of the mother Church. Students to a great 
number were in quick training for the priesthood. Xavier went 



BA88EIN—A DEAD PORTUGUESE CITY. 



741 



up the coast to Bassein, then down to the Cape, and up the coast 
of the Bay of Bengal, and, not satisfied with his Indian achieve- 
ments, went to China and Japan, and gathered in communicants 
by the same methods which he had adopted in Western India. 
A single sermon and a clash of water made the Hindu a Chris- 
tian — in name. 

The first collapse of Goa as a missionary centre came with 
the conquest of the Portuguese by natives. But there was still 
a hope that with the now rising French power in India there 




THE CITADEL GATE. 



might be a Eoman Catholic restoration, and a new field for Jes- 
uit operations. Yet France, while Romanist, nevertheless does 
not put her political machinery at the mercy of her priesthood. 
She lets her priests take care of the ecclesiastical life. Goa, in 
the case of final French occupation, might continue its work of 
propaganclism, but the Church would have to look after the 
work and foot all the bills. But the final collapse came when 
the battle of Plassey was fought, and Clive gave India to Eng- 
land. This sealed the fate of Goa. Its harbor now shelters 



742 INDIKA. 

only an occasional ship. The streets are grass-grown. The once 
majestic churches are now piles of hopeless ruins. 

Bassein was to Northern India what Goa was to the south- 
ern region. Its field was even more promising, for the territory 
which it commanded was broader, and embraced the two great- 
est valleys of all Asia. Xavier had his keen eye upon it, and 
three times visited it, and kept up a correspondence with the 
ecclesiastical leaders of the place. He came in the wake of the 
founder of Bassein as a centre of Portuguese authority in India 
— Nuno da Cunha, who ruled here from 1529 to 1538, and whose 
praises were sung by Camoens : 

" Then the fierce Sampaio shall be succeeded by 
Cunha, who the helm long time shall wisely guide; 
The lofty towers of Chale [ChauTJ he shall raise on high, 
"While famous Dio shall tremble when by him tried. 
Strong Bacain [Bassein] shall not his artillery deny, 
But not without bloodshed ; Melic with humbled pride 
Shall see her superb palisades down-torn, 
And not less because the work of the sword shall mourn." * 

While Bassein was a commercial and political centre, and was 
held by Portuguese troops, and strongly fortified, it was still 
stronger as a base of ecclesiastical propagandism. The religious 
idea dominated over all. The absorption of all the hoarded wealth 
by the Church, and the city in which the Jesuits really subsidized 
the military power of the Portuguese in India to strengthen 
their position, form a most entertaining chapter in the Indo- 
European life of two centuries ago. Bassein is an island, hug- 
ging the shore closely, about thirty miles north of Bombay. The 
Portuguese fortified it by running a great wall around it, with 
towers and projections and all the appliances for long defence. 
It was honeycombed with secret chambers for stores in case of 
siege. From its parapets one could see at a great distance ves- 
sels approaching the coast, while from its peculiar relation to 
the land an enemy from the interior could be resisted with every 
hope of success. This island, with its bold headland, pushed its 
nose boldly out into the sea, tempted its owners to fortify it, 
build upon it, and prepare to hold it for all the ages to come. 

The relations of the Portuguese to the Mogul rulers of the 



•■ Lusiad," canto x., lxi. (Mitchell's version). 



BASSEIN— A DEAD PORTUGUESE CITY. 743 

North were anything but fixed. But these rulers conceived the 
idea of using the Portuguese as allies against other intruders. 
Now friendly and now hostile, these Moguls, who sat on jewelled 
thrones and made the whole Eastern world tremble at the mere 
mention of their names, found it to their advantage, after long 
meditation, to have such daring sailors as the Portuguese in al- 
liance with them. The sailors could be carriers of their goods 
and the fruits of their soil to the Western markets. They could 
check the newly coming English too, who were just now exhibit- 
ing so decided a taste for Indian life and a suspicious love of 
Hindu adventure. Hence, when the Portuguese would build up 
Bassein, and make it a strong fortress for war and an ecclesias- 
tical centre in peace, the Moguls had little to fear. They let 
them go on without disturbance. In due time, however, the 
Marhattas appeared, and they saw no use for the Portuguese in 
India. They resolved on their departure, and hence conquered 
Bassein, in the year 1739, as the key to their whole position. 
The Portuguese had dominated there two hundred and ten years, 
but had now fired their last gun. The strife of the Marhattas 
with the English was long and bitter. They were at last con- 
quered, however, and, after holding Bassein seventy-nine years, 
surrendered it to the English in 1818, when it was incorporated 
with the Bombay presidency. 

Visit to the Ruins. 

I reached the railway station from Jaipur about three o'clock 
in the morning. There was not a place where I could find even 
fair accommodation for the rest of the night. In most of the 
Indian stations one can secure a room, where he may spread his 
bedding. But there was no room for a weary traveller this 
time. I was referred to a bungalow a few hundred yards 
from the station. On going there, and being shown the room, 
it had a woe-begone appearance, and was far from inviting 
to even the most sleepy occupant. There were too many crev- 
ices, and I feared insects large and small. I returned to the 
station, and half sat and half reclined until the broad daylight. 
After a frugal breakfast, I engaged a bullock-cart for the four 
miles and a half to old Bassein. 

There are no springs to the typical bullock-cart, and your best 
position is to sit on the bottom of the contrivance. My two 



744 INDIRA. 

little bullocks started off in frisky style, and in an hour I was 
within the narrow and winding streets of the town which has 
grown up outside the old one, and yet must have had its begin- 
nings even during the existence of the original Bassein. The 
scenery from the station to Bassein proper is charming. Fields 
of rice and various other grains stretch out on either hand. Here 
and there was a pond, which was all radiant with the sacred 
lotus in full flower and fragrance. One of the most conspicuous 
objects on getting fairly into the village was a ruined church. 
Its walls and roof were entire, but it was in wretched condition. 
Its windows were a curiosity, the first I had seen in India where 
the panes were of the pearl oyster-shell, cut thin, and about an 
inch and a half square. This was the Portuguese window. The 
labor of making great windows of such small pieces of shell, 
neatly cut and smoothed, was immense. At least one half the 
light was obstructed by the shell-slats, and when one adds to 
this the wooden framing for the shells, there must have been a 
considerable addition to the semi - opaqueness. But then this 
is India, and it is always a study to keep out the glare of the 
sun. 

I soon left the town behind, and came upon rising ground 
by a winding road, through a thick grove of mango and peepul- 
trees. Off to the left stood the grim ruins of the old fort. I 
had now crossed the bridge, and so had passed upon the island 
of Bassein, which is about four miles long and two miles broad. 
This, nearly three centuries ago, was a very paradise of Portu- 
guese enterprise and luxury on the one hand, and of Jesuit 
worldly wisdom on the other. Kuins were now on either hand. 
It was hard to tell which destructive force had been the stronger 
— time, or the merciless Marhattas. Any way that I might turn 
brought me face to face with some vast ruined cathedral. Now. 
it was only the bare walls without ceiling or roof, and then I 
found myself walking over, the marble slabs, with nearly effaced 
inscriptions, which covered the dust of Portuguese ecclesiastics 
and hidalgos. The dead underlay the entire nave and choir of 
one church after another. Some of the towers leaned at threat- 
ening angles, and yet in several cases it seemed safe enough to 
climb to the top of the wall and overlook this weird scene of 
ruin. There were arches which rose in graceful curves from 
one side of the portal to the other. Yet, at the keystone, there 



BASSEIN—A DEAD PORTUGUESE CITY. 



745 



was often a depression which made it wise to get from beneath 
it. Occasionally, the central part of the wall had fallen out- 
right, and left the jagged ends of the ruin on either hand. 

Great pains had been taken to ornament the choir. Here 
was an elaborate sculpture, only fragments of which could be 
seen in scattered pedestals and capitals, and bits of the carved 
shafts. Where the walls had been less disturbed by the ravages 
of war and the elements there still remained tablets in mem- 




CATHEDRAL OF ST. JOSEPH. 



ory of ecclesiastic or civic officers whose lamp of life had 
died out here, far away from the dear Portugal which they left 
behind. 

The Cathedral of St. Joseph is one of the most nearly com- 
plete of all the old churches. The great square tower which 
forms the portal still stands, and has to this day its gallery at 
the top, and even the ornamental work about its balustrades. 
Over the entrance one reads, in Portuguese, the still perfect in- 
scription in stone : 



746 INDIRA. 

"In the year 1601, being Archbishop Primate, the most Illustrious Sr. Dom 
Frei Aleixo de Menezes, and Vicar the Rev. Pedro Galvas Pereira, this Matriz 
was rebuilt." 

This tower is an inviting point for a curious ascent. Da 
Cunha in his History tells us that he tried it, but in finding 
two steps crumbling beneath his feet he was compelled to beat 
a hasty retreat. No ruin in Bassein gives one a fairer idea of 
the splendor of these edifices when the Portuguese held undis- 
puted sway here, and Goa and Bassein wrought hand in hand 
for bringing the millions of India beneath the Jesuit's crozier. 
Here were belfries which had sent out their sweet chimes over 
land and water in the days long gone by. Then there were 
lancet windows, calm side chapels, richly carved archways, and 
majestic pillars the entire length of the nave, all of such lavish 
wealth of sculpture and ornament as would have delighted Lis- 
bon itself. The rebuilder of this cathedral died in Goa ; but be- 
cause of his relation to Bassein his remains were transferred 
here, as we learn from the following inscription on a black tomb- 
stone in the chancel to the right of the high altar : 

"To this grave are transferred the bones of Pedro Galvao, Servant of the 
Lord, who managed and enlarged this temple. Died at Goa on the 19th of 
March of the year 1618." 

The Church of St. Antonio was in its time one of the most 
imposing of the entire group on the island of Bassein. It seems 
to have been built by Fra Antonio do Porto, who figured largely 
in the Jesuit operations for the conquest of India. He destroyed 
two hundred Hindu pagodas, built eleven churches, and con- 
verted ten thousand one hundred and fifty natives to Christian- 
ity. The Franciscan church, or monastery — for it seems to 
have combined the two qualities — was, however, the grandest 
of all these ecclesiastical structures. It divided with that of 
St. Francis, in Goa, the honor of having chief authority in India. 
Several other churches were affiliated with it. The lateral chap- 
els in the ruin are still to be recognized, and contain tombstones 
bearing the following touching inscriptions ; 

I. 

H. M. Counsellor, died on the 24th of 
August, 1558, and his wife, Dona 
Luiza da Silva, and of his heirs. 



BASSEIN—A DEAD PORTUGUESE CITY. 747 

II. 

Here lies Dona Francisca da 

Miranda, wife of Manoel de 

Melo Perreira, Founder of this 

Chapel, and her daughter lues de 

Melo, and her grandson Luis de Melo. 

She died on 10th November, 1606. 

III. 

Grave of Dona Giomar da Aguiar, widow of Alvaro de Lemos. May he be 
with God ! Died on the 11th March of 96 [1596]. Hers and her sons. 

IV. 

This tombstone was placed by 

Dona Ira de Barredo for her 

Interment in the grave of her husband 

Antonio Tello de Menezes, who 

Died on the 26th October, 1676. This 

Grave was purchased by Manoel de 

Carvalhar Pereira and his heirs. Our Father. 

V. 

In the reign of the most high and puissant 

King 

D. Joao de Portugal III. of the name. 

When the Viceroy D. Alfonso de Noronha was 

governing India, 

Son of the Marquis of Villa Real, and when 

Francisco 
De Sa was Captain of this fortress and of the 

city 

of Bassein. This bastion was founded under 

the name of San 

Sebastian on the 22d February, 

In the year 1554. 

I was bewildered with this wonderful scene. From one view 
I went to another, expecting to find that in some cases at least 
these relics of the Portuguese past would repeat themselves. 
But in no instance was this the fact. Each had its well-defined 
individuality. Where a cathedral had a supporting monastery, 
the space covered by the latter, as with the Franciscan and Jes- 
uit monasteries, was at once imposing and immense. The old 
paths where the monks walked were quite obstructed by the 



748 INDIRA. 

tangled creepers. Many walls had lost their perpendicular, and 
now and then had tumbled to the ground, but it was easy to see 
the entire outline. The sacred edifices were in all stages of 
decay. Some were such complete ruins that not even a memo- 
rial tablet was longer in place, but had tumbled into the mass 
of stones and been broken into small pieces. Even the palaces of 
the General of the ISTorth and the Captain of Bassein were 
utter wrecks, only the broken walls and bastions and trembling 
portals remaining to tell of the former splendor of the place, 
and its importance in the eye of Portugal and of the daring 
and never-resting Xavier. 

In one section my guide became doubtful of his way, and we 
proceeded with uncertainty. We were in a thick jungle, and 
could see only a short distance ahead of us. The path was over- 
grown, and I was intent on getting out of the tangled vegeta- 
tion. All at once we emerged into the clear sunshine, which 
revealed a great cathedral, far gone as to wall and campanile. 
I strolled along the old nave, looked at its displaced tablets, and 
clambered over the roots and knolls which surround its immense 
walls. 

One feature of this strange place surprised me more than any 
work of the Portuguese priest, governor, or factor. I mean the 
prodigies of vegetation. The custard-apple, the mango, and the 
peepul-tree grow here with a wild luxuriance which positively 
defies description. 

Just within the walls where Portuguese hidalgos sat with 
their wives and children, and listened to the gospel accord- 
ing to Rome, and made confession, amid all the wealth and 
pageantry for which the Portuguese rule in Bassein was famed, 
there now grow tall and heavy trees, their topmost boughs higher 
even than the walls, and hanging down the exterior of the walls, 
and meeting the branches of the trees of less sacred growth. 
Trees have taken root on the walls themselves, and in each side 
of the wall, and sent down their long roots into the crevices of the 
rocks and struck the earth, and then -twisted the very walls out 
of place, and grasped whole masses of solid rock, and now 
hold them in firm embrace. The creepers, not slender vines, 
but gigantic trees, have thrust their roots beneath the very walls 
of the cathedrals, and shot out their arms into the lancet win- 
dows, and gone up the sides of the campanile, and expanded 



BASSEIN-A DEAD PORTUGUESE CITY. 



749 



into broad umbrellas, which hang over every side of the carved 
balcony, as though to hide it from the glare of the sun. 

No woodman's axe is here. Nature, beneath this prodigal 
Indian sky, grows with a lavish and rapid splendor, and defies 
all the patience of the architect, and hides the finest toil of the 
sculptor's chisel. These vines spare nothing. Where the tree 




CHURCH OF THE FRANCISCANS. 

cannot penetrate the mass 
of rocks, its roots run down either 
side of bastion or wall until they 
reach the earth, and then pene- 
trate it with such force that the severest monsoons of May and 
summer do not destroy their perpendicular. These trees do not 
seem to die, but to live on and grow larger, and send out their 
branches with such a wild luxuriance that they enter any win- 
dow and climb over any precipice. 

Then, in addition to the trees of creeping proclivities, one sees 



750 INDIRA. 

the cocoa-palm everywhere. It has no vines, but it still asserts 
its rights. It stands alone, and may grow beside a cathedral 
portal, and fan the archway with its bold fronds. The dead 
leaves lie in all directions, but they have only given place to 
still larger ones, which are beautiful and vigorous in their new 
growth. The smaller shrubbery is made up of many a species. 
It would require a very close examination of the botany of India 
to identify them. But here in Bassein they make a jungle such 
as I did not see even in Ceylon. The tendency everywhere, 
except with palms, is to vines. The strings from the trunks 
shoot off at all angles, catch upon larger shrubbery, grow into 
a tangled mass, and, instead of being stifled and coming to a 
halt, strike out again, find new holding-places, and grow into 
even larger masses. The soil becomes a thick mould, and is in- 
fested with any number of reptiles, which here in Bassein find 
only an occasional traveller to disturb their composure. Be- 
neath some of the cathedrals there are secret passages, and in 
their best days it is most likely that all the larger ones were 
connected by underground paths. 

One cannot help thinking, while wandering amid this scene 
of desolation, of the old Portuguese days. The Governor-Gen- 
eral of India, who lived here, was supported hj an immense salary. 
He had his rich retainers and numerous household, who lived 
in such splendor as none in Portugal besides the royal family 
had ever witnessed. Then the bells sent out their chimes from 
these many campaniles, and the congregations gathered for wor- 
ship, and all the elaborate ritual of Eomanism was conducted 
with a splendor and leisure quite in keeping with the hopes for 
the occupation, some day, of all India. The ladies, each with 
several attendants, coming from the splendid homes which sur- 
rounded Bassein on the water-front, were attired in the richest 
silks and adorned with the rarest jewels which the India of that 
day could supply. The music had lost none of its sweet melody 
by coming the long distance from Portugal. It was cultivated 
on Indian soil as a special agency for winning the Hindu to the 
new faith from the West. 

At a given time, once a year, the Passion Play attracted uni- 
versal attention. It was arranged in such a way as to appeal 
alike to the fears and hopes of the natives. Da Cunha thus 
gives the origin of it, as a means for impressing the Hindu mind, 



BASSEIN—A DEAD PORTUGUESE CITY. 



751 



and at the same time to animate the Portuguese residents to 
new consecration for the conversion of India's millions. He 
says : " The history of ' Santos Passos,' or ' Passion Play,' at 
Bassein, is extremely curious. It originated with the Jesuits. 
The ' Santos Passos ' were first performed in the church with 
the Jesuits' College of the Holy Faith at Goa, as a sequence to 
an event of religious revival in 1551, when the pope, in com- 
pliance with the request of St. Francis Xavier, granted a general 
jubilee for India, the first ever celebrated in this country. 

"A Jesuit by name of Gaspar Berzeo, then established a society 




MONASTERY OF THE JESUITS. 



of the so-called ' disciplinantes; whose business it was, while 
the preacher raised their religious emotions to the pitch of in- 
sanity, to chastise themselves with scourges which, in some in- 
stances, had little iron blades attached to them, so as to make 
incisions into the skin deep enough to allow the blood to flow. 
Sometimes the theopathy of the faithful, as is usually the case, 
was of so catching a nature that whole cono-reo-ations were 
found busy in the process of flogging themselves. In some in- 
stances the voice of the preacher, who had iu the meanwhile 



752 INDIKA. 

worked himself up to a frenzy, was quite drowned in the whack 
and thwack of the lash and stripe. The hysteric penitents, of 
course, fainted ; but then there were the Jesuit brothers always 
ready by their side to help them into another room, where con- 
solations were liberally dispensed to them. The sermon of the 
Jesuit preacher was generally in the text, ' Multa flagella pec- 
catoris,' and at the end of it a crucifix was held out to the con- 
templation of the entranced congregation, when the hardy dis- 
ciplinantes began their work of self-torture. This enthusiasm, 
however, could not last long, and soon gave place to the so-called 
' Santos Passos,' or ' Passion Play,' performed in successive stages 
in weekly parts during the course of Lent, which, having begun 
in the Jesuits' Church at Goa, spread, as if by infection, in a very 
short time to every Roman Catholic communion in India. It 
was brought first to Bassein by the Jesuit Fr. Melchior Nunes 
Barreto." * 

It is a curious question in ethnography, what has been the 
fate of the Portuguese descendants in India % The conversion 
to Christianity was never fundamental, and there is a much 
wider difference between the present race of Portuguese and the 
English Christians than between the native Hindus and the Por- 
tuguese. The Portuguese intermarried with natives, and in 
time almost all the Iberian characteristics of feature and form 
disappeared. The matter of faith and language alone re- 
mained. In the steamer by which I went from Colombo to 
Tutikorin. the whole deck was filled by these Portuguese 
Christians of to-day. I could not have discovered that they 
were Christians at all but from the crucifix which hung 
from their dirty necks. They had all the thriftlessness of the 
lower Hindu castes, and were ignorant in the extreme. Yet 
they were so-called Christians, and the direct offspring of the 
Portuguese missions planted by Francis Xavier around the In- 
dian coast, from Bassein in the northwest around to the Cape, 
and then nearly up to Madras on the Bay of Bengal. 

There are many of these Portuguese in Bombay, a race of 
themselves. All the waiters in the hotel where I lodged are 
of the same race. They are people who never rise above a very 



* Da Cimha, "Notes of the History and Antiquities of Cliaul and Bassein," 
pp. 249, 250. 



BASSEIN— A DEAD PORTUGUESE CITY. 753 

low level. " They are extremely ignorant," says Da Cunha, 
" nor have they any talent worth developing for anything use- 
ful, except, perhaps, the lower walks of handicraft, such as car- 
pentry, cotton-weaving, or the curing of hams." From the day 
when Bassein was conquered, there has not been a single literary 
or scientific celebrity among them. The highest in the class are 
but clerks in English and Parsi offices, where they carry on the 
mechanical work of copying. Occasionally a pamphleteer or 
two put in their appearance, but their productions are written 
in excessively bad English or equally bad Portuguese. 

Of vernaculars, except, perhaps, a little colloquial corrupt dia- 
lect of the Marhatti, the present Portuguese know nothing, and 
appear to have renounced them from the day of their conversion to 
Christianity. These people are as much despised by the dominant 
race as by the Hindus. As for the moral character of the hybrid 
race, it may be summed up in the following dictum, which has 
been found true elsewhere — they have inherited the vices of 
both their parents, and the virtues of neither. There is no de- 
scendant of any high-class native among them. This fact is 
best proved by their physiognomy, which is, in short and gen- 
eral outline, a receding forehead, small eyes, prominent cheek- 
bones, nose sunk at the root of wide nostrils, large mouth, and 
thick lips. In the more depressed classes and those addicted 
to drink, the expression of the face is scowling and unsteady. 
Another proof of their low descent is the spite and hatred they 
bear from the very bottom of their heart against high-class na- 
tives, who, from their natural shrewdness and superior intellect, 
seem destined to domineer over them.* 

This unfavorable judgment applies with equal truth to the mon- 
grel population which live in tents outside the old wall of Bassein. 
It would be difficult to tell the Portuguese Christian from the na- 
tive Hindu. Their plane of life is quite the same. The Portuguese 
Roman Catholic here, and all over India, is a poor commentary 
on the character of the first converts under Xavier. They have 
churches here and there, but of such quality is their service that 
one finds it but little above the average Hindu worship. I ex- 
amined carefully one of their cathedrals now in use in Tutikorin. 
In tawdry adornment, in poor and gaudy appeals by glaring and 

* Da Cunha, " Notes," etc., pp. 250, 251. 
48 



754 



INDIKA. 



coarse frescoes, and in the gross prominence given to the Virgin, 
I never saw, even in the obscurer parts of Italy, this so-called, 
sanctuary surpassed. 

The question forces itself upon one, as he walks away from 
the marvellous ruins of former Portuguese glory in Bassein : 
"What if those people were to-day dominant over the two 
hundred and fifty millions of India?" A strange Providence 
has ordered otherwise. Had the masters conducted themselves 
properly, and been fair types of the Christian colonist, there is 
no likelihood that they would have been disturbed. Their in- 
fluence would likely have extended throughout the great valleys 
of both the Ganges and the Indus. But neither Hindu nor Mo- 
hammedan could see unselfishness in their measures. Theirs 
were the greed for gold, pride for the Church; and a lust for 
hasty and numerous converts. Therefore, when the Marhattas 
conquered Bassein, and paved the way unwittingly for the final 
triumph of the English, they were only helping India to her 
certain Protestant destiny. 




FACADE OF A GROTTO OF KANHERI. 



CHAPTER LXXXVI. 
WHAT HAS ENGLAND DONE FOR INDIA?' 

English rule over India is not a case of hard conquest and 
commercial advantage. We think of Olive's terrible deeds and 
Burke's pictures of the crimes of Warren Hastings. We go 
still further back, and reflect upon the vicious parts of the pol- 
icy of the East India Company during its long history. We 
come down to the present, and* think of the. government com- 
plicity with the trade in opium and the manufacture of liquors. 
But there is a broader view, which we are compelled to take if 
we would justly compare the India of to-day with what it was 
two centuries and a half ago. Even after discounting the wrong- 
doing of every English officer and administrator in India, and 
the connivance of the government at idolatrous practices, there 
still remain incalculable advantages to the country, which must 
be placed to the credit and honor of the Anglo-Saxon in India. 
These advantages cannot be attributed to the natural develop- 
ment of the natives, to the constant pressure of European ideas, 
or to the general force of our modern civilization. They are 
the direct result of the conquest of the country by England and 
of her subsequent rule over it. 

First of all we must name the gradual unification of the coun- 
try. The picture of Germany before the war with Austria, in 
1866, which was the first blow for unification, is only a faint 
European parallel to the divisions of India before the conquest 
of the country by English armies. It is the purest fiction that 
there were ancient dynasties, which the English broke up. The 
land was one great tangled skein of races, languages, and recent 
governments. ■ Century after century rolled by, and still the 
strife of war and bloodshed went on. Through the mountain 
gateways of the North there poured down daring armies into the 
plains of India, which showed no mercy, but swept away thrones 
and laws and cities, and ruled for a while, each being in time 



756 INDIRA. 

displaced and ground into powder by its successor. For seven 
centuries these cruel invasions went on, and India lay at the 
mercy of the strongest. This process was in full force in the 
eighteenth century, when six invasions upon the peaceful people 
took place in twenty-three years.* On the first of these later 
invasions, in 1738, when the Afghan conquerors reached Delhi, 
men, women, and children were hacked to pieces in the streets. 
Mill, father of James Stuart Mill, and most philosophical of all 
the historians of India, says of this massacre in Delhi : " With 
the first light of the morning, the invading leader, Nadir, issued 
forth, and, dispersing bands of soldiers in every direction, ordered 
them to slaughter the inhabitants, without regard to age or sex, 
in every street or avenue in which the body of a murdered Per- 
sian should be found. From sunrise to midday the sabre raged ; 
and by that time not less than eight thousand were numbered 
with the dead. During the massacre and pillage the city was 
set on fire in several places." 

The history of the great Mogul empire is one uninterrupted 
chapter of bloodshed. At the death of the Emperor Aurangzeb, in 
1707, it reached its final expansion. It had no power to preserve 
its vitality. It was a loose mass, ready for any strong hand to 
break it into pieces. Its spoils were fought over by Afghans, 
Jats, Sikhs, revolting viceroys, rebellious governors, and military 
adventurers at large, f The Marhattas were the strongest force. 
They poured down from the mountains on the western coast, and 
carried desolation before them. They spared neither sex nor 
age, and the terror of their name was felt by every native of the 
country from Bombay to Calcutta. Not only were the English 
the first strong hand which had the power to stay the tide of 
Marhatta desolation, but to close up the two northern gateways 
against further invasions. It was the peaceful termination of a 
current of incoming freebooters which goes back of Marhatta, 
Afghan, Mogul, and Persian invasion, to the remote mythical 
period, when the Aryan came down from the northern gate- 
ways, when " Parasurama cleared the earth twenty-one times of 
the Kshatriya caste, and filled five large lakes with their blood," 

* Murdoch, " India's Needs," pp. 13, 14 (from Hunter, " England's Work in 
India"). 

t Lyall, " Asiatic Studies," p. 189. 



WHAT HAS ENGLAND DONE FOR INDIA? 757 

and when the great Indian epic, the Mahabharata, began to be 
woven, and to unfold its unparalleled tale of the strife of races 
and the death of nations. Even the sea contributed its invaders. 
Pirates from the Burmese coast crossed the Bay of Bengal, 
pressed up the rivers, and carried desolation and death to the 
people. On the western coast the piracy was still more terrible. 
Whole fleets plied along the shore of the Indian Ocean, and 
levied such extortions as enabled the wealthy rajahs to sustain 
luxurious courts by the gains.* 

The first and only force which arrested this struggle of ages 
in India has been England. The process of transition was long. 
Never has the Anglo-Saxon race had a more difficult problem to 
solve than, not merely to conquer, but to hold and set in motion 
the forces for a homogeneous Indian nation. The work was in 
rapid progress when the mutiny of 1857 broke out. This was 
the last disintegrating spasm. "When the English army con- 
quered the mutineers, a new bond, the strongest yet made, held 
the native races together. From that time to the present every 
step has been towards a united people. The old causes of in- 
ternal separation are constantly disappearing. The Indian is 
beginning to feel, for the first time, that he is not the member 
of a tribe, but of a race ; that he is not a soldier in sept, but a 
rightful owner of the broad soil ; that he is not the slave of a 
rajah, but the citizen of a nation. 

Crime is now rapidly decreasing. The frequent ebb and flow 
of conquest and oppression brought in a great amount of crime, 
which no laws could punish. The will of the ruler decided life 
and death. The laws themselves were the instruments of the 
strong to crush the weak. Even the sanctities of the Brahmic 
faith were utilized by wilder spirits to acquire gold by robbery 
and rapine. In India there were one hundred robber or " pred- 
atory" castes in the last century, f They were devoted to the 
worship of certain deities, and went out in bands, with a spear 
as their weapon. They attacked homes by night, and applied 
torture in case of resistance or concealment of treasure. Some- 
times the robbers assumed the proportions of an army, in which 
case there was no thought of territorial possession, but solely of 
getting possession of the wealth of others. The Pindaris had no 

* Hunter, "England's Work in India," p. 11. t Ibid., pp. 15, 16. 



758 INDIKA. 

modest purpose, but went in hordes of twenty thousand horse- 
men, and spared no class. The Thags were professional mur- 
derers. They worshipped the goddess Kali, or Devi, and, until 
the English broke them up, had plied their fiendish craft for 
many centuries. Death was always their object. They must 
kill in order to rifle the body safely. They always claimed the 
protection of the goddess. They had their leaders, their f ormulas 
for admission into the murderous fraternity, and their watch- 
words. When once the crimes of Thagism were brought to the 
attention of the British government, the death-knell of the in- 
famy was struck. Lord William Bentinck put Colonel Sleeman 
in charge of the difficult task. This officer, with his assistants, 
completely fulfilled his mission, and brought Thagism to an end, 
which had existed and spread desolation in India for twenty 
centuries. Hunter thus describes his meeting with one of the 
last of this old robber fraternity : 

" Some time ago I was taken to visit the principal jail of the 
Indian provinces. At parting, when I was thanking the gov- 
ernor of the prison for all he had shown me, he exclaimed : 

" ' Ah, there is one thing more we must not forget to see.' 

" He took me to a well-ventilated, comfortable room in the 
jail hospital, where, lolling upon pillows, reclined a reverend, 
white-bearded man. 

" ' This,' he said, ' is the last of our thags. He alone survives 
of the batch which we received twenty-five years ago !' 

"I found that the miserable strangler had been for fifteen 
years enjoying himself in the hospital, the object of much solici- 
tude to the doctors, and his life carefully prolonged by medical 
comforts, as an interesting relic of the past." * 

Dacoity, or gang-robbery, was another form of crime which 
has required great energy on the part of the government to 
suppress. As late as 1879, in the Dekhan, it broke out with 
great violence, where the robbers sheltered themselves in the 
mountain fastnesses. Major Daniels, of the English army, dis- 
tinguished himself by his extraordinary labors for its suppres- 
sion. Sati, the crime of Hindu widows burning themselves on 
the funeral pyres of their husbands, was associated with the 
solemnities of the popular faith. To suppress the crime required 

* "England's Work in India," p. 19. 



WHAT HAS ENGLAND DONE FOR INDIA? 759 

the greatest possible energy of the government. It is now en- 
tirely eradicated, not only in the country directly under English 
rule, but also in the native states. 

The inhuman crime of female infanticide, which has prevailed 
in India, has been very difficult to overcome, in spite of the pro- 
hibition of both the Quran and the Yedas. The Eajputs and the 
native tribes have been most addicted to it. The first attempt to 
suppress it was in the eighteenth century, by Jonathan Duncan 
and Major Walker. They have been followed by others in the 
present century. In 1853 Lord Lawrence held a durbar at Am- 
ritsar, where the feudatory chiefs of the Panjab and the trans- 
Satlej States signed an agreement engaging to expel from caste 
every one who committed infanticide, and to adopt fixed and 
moderate rates of marriage expenses. Unquestionably the great 
expense which the bride's father must incur has had much to 
do with the prevalence of infanticide. Take the Rajputs as an 
example. The father of the Rajput bride has had to make gifts 
of money, clothes, jewels, and sweetmeats to the bridegroom's 
relatives, and, when the wedding comes, to pay enormous fees 
to the Brahman priests and the bhats, or minstrels. In the case 
of some rajahs these expenses for having a daughter who became 
a bride have gone up to the enormous sum of one hundred thou- 
sand pounds sterling.* To guard against such heavy expenses, 
the father has been in the habit of putting the infant daughter 
to death by giving her a pill of tobacco and bhang, or smearing 
opium or the poisonous datura over the mother's breast. 

While the crime of infanticide has greatly decreased, the sta- 
tistics of population furnish some suspicious facts. There is not 
the slightest reason to suppose that the proportion of boys and 
girls should not be equal in India, as in other countries. Yet 
in Oudh the excess of boys is seven per cent., in Bombay eight 
per cent., in the Northwest Provinces twelve per cent., and in 
the Panjab sixteen per cent. In 1870 a law was passed re- 
quiring special police regulation for towns where, because of the 
disproportion between boys and girls, there was suspicion of the 
practice of infanticide. In one tribe of Meerut, for example, 
there were found eighty boys under twelve years of age to only 

# Smith, article in "Encycl. Brit.," vol. xiii. (9th ed.), p. 3. Bacon, "Ori- 
ental Annual," 1839, p. 92. 



760 INDIKA. 

eight girls. In the Bengal population, the ratio is one hundred 
boys to eighty-seven girls. This disproportion is proof that, 
despite all the earnest measures of the government, the crime 
still prevails. 

But a great end has been gained in concealing the crime from 
the public gaze. The first step towards the extinction of a crime 
is its banishment into darkness. The English purpose to exter- 
minate infanticide is one of the many instances in which the 
Hindus owe to their conquerors a debt they can never pay, for 
teaching them the lesson of humanity to themselves. 

Child marriages are an evil which will still survive for some time. 
According to the census of 1881, the number of Brahman widows 
above nineteen years of age in all India was 54,000. There are 
80,000 Brahman widows under thirty. Neither child widow 
nor adult can marry again. Nearly all the Brahman girls are 
married between seven and ten years of age. If this state of 
things exists in the one class of Brahmans, what must be the 
number of child- widows of all classes throughout India? But 
the native Hindu mind, and notably Sir T. Madava Eao, is be- 
ginning its protest against this domestic crime. In due time 
the government will remove the curse of compulsory widow- 
hood. 

In view of the stringency with which crime is punished in 
India, the number of offenders is constantly decreasing. Not- 
withstanding the increase of population, there were in 1882 
twenty-five per cent, less prisoners in the jails of India than 
there were in 1867.* Even the native princes are watched, and 
England is careful to see that her feudatory rulers have no such 
power as was exercised before she entered India. For example, 
under Hindu and Mohammedan rule the native ruler could ap- 
propriate, if he chose, all the revenue for his personal enjoy- 
ment, and could take away the life, liberty, or property of any 
of his subjects. Under English rule this license no longer exists. 
The native prince is subjected to essentially the same righteous 
regulations which govern the territory directly under English rule. 
The salutary influence of the English government has even 
reached the evils existing among the aboriginal Hill Tribes. For 
example, it was found that, among this neglected class, the 

* Murdoch, "India's Needs," pp. 18, 19. 



WHAT HAS ENGLAND DONE FOB INDIA? 761 

debtors were converted into slaves. This class was promptly 
released by government order. Another class of slaves consisted 
of persons who had been captured in war. These, too, were 
liberated by the English rulers." 

All India is now a neighborhood. The arrival of the English 
mail is anticipated almost to the hour. Quick transportation is 
everywhere the rule. Bishop Heber required six weeks to go from 
Calcutta to Dacca by boat. Now the same journey is made in 
twenty-four hours. He required nearly three months to go from 
Dacca to Allahabad, a distance of seven hundred miles. The 
same distance can now be covered by any one in three days, by 
steamer and railway, f He spent nearly half a year, or from 
June 15th to November 27th, in going from Calcutta to Almora : 

" Then on ! Then on ! where duty leads, 
My course be onward still ; 
O'er broad Hindostan's sultry mead, 
O'er bleak Almora's hill." » 

The same distance can now be travelled in four days. 

Sanitary measures have been adopted. Before the English 
supremacy there was no attention paid to the laws of health. 
The rulers and the nobles had immense wealth, and could live 
in luxury. For the life of the millions there was no thought. 
The two fundamental questions were, to get men for the army, 
and to grind out a revenue for the support of the government. 
Whether the people were comfortable or not, whether they were 
long-lived or not, were concerns left entirety to the people them- 
selves. When the English entered upon the rule of the coun- 
try, they looked after the sanitary condition of the humblest, 
and the increased longevity is the proof of the success of their 
efforts. The Sanitary Department is one of the distinct parts 
of the administration of the government. A sanitary commis- 
sioner is attached to each local government, and under him are 
several grades of medical officers. Above all these there is a 
general sanitary commissioner, connected with the general 
government, and to him sanitary reports must come from all 
parts of the empire. The three great cities of Calcutta, Ma- 

* Lewin, " The Wild Races of Southeastern India," pp. 87, 91. London, 1870. 
t Buckland, " Sketches of Social Life in India," p. 7. 



762 INBIKA. 

dras, and Bombay are supplied with water-works, which in each 
case are triumphs of engineering skill and of care for dense 
populations. These water-works are equal to those of the great 
cities of Europe and America. The same care is taken for the 
supply of wholesome water in the smaller towns throughout the 
country.* Many millions of pounds sterling have been ex- 
pended on the sewage system — a problem hard to solve, especi- 
ally in such flat surfaces as Calcutta and Madras. The govern- 
ment has further shown its solicitude for the improvement of 
the health of the people by issuing small manuals on sanitary 
science for their use in schools, and for general circulation. 

In close relationship with this most praiseworthy care of the 
people by the government, the prevention and cure of disease 
must not be forgotten. The English, when they found them- 
selves permanent occupants and rulers of the country, had to 
deal with a great mass of people whose chief occupation had 
been to find rice enough to keep themselves alive. The national 
life during the Mogul rule, being one of warfare and perpetual 
alarm, no intelligent care was bestowed on the treatment of 
disease. Whenever a plague invaded the country it ran its race. 
The people were at its mercy. Millions were swept away by 
it. The proverb common in parts of India, that "a mother can 
never say she has a son until he has had the small-pox," carried 
with it a terrible truth. The ravages of this disease were ap- 
palling. It is still terribly devastating, many thousands dying 
annually from this one cause alone. The natives used to parry 
it somewhat by inoculation, and they still have a prejudice 
against vaccination. But the government prohibits inoculation, 
and requires vaccination, without cost to the people. It em- 
ploys vaccinators, and requires official returns for their work. 
Other diseases are watched carefully, and their violence brought 
to the minimum by the persevering efforts of the state. 

Wherever the popular worship is concerned, it is next to im- 
possible to guard the health and life of the people. For exam- 
ple, the many thousands who drink the sacred water from the 
Gyan Kup, or Well of Knowledge, in Benares, take into their 
bodies as corrupt a fluid as the idolatry or ingenuity of man 
could well compound. To make the people cease drinking the 

* Temple, "India in 1880," pp. 322 ff. 



WHAT HAS ENGLAND DONE FOB INDIA? 763 

filthy water would be an assault on the faith of the people which 
would shake the empire to its foundations. But the time will 
come when even in India it will be proven, not only that " clean- 
liness is next to godliness," but that it is a part of that new god- 
liness which is sure to overspread the country. In order to 
mitigate the ravages of fever, the government has taken special 
pains to introduce quinine throughout the country. Plants have 
been brought from South America, and plantations are already 
producing supplies for the people. The price of quinine is very 
low throughout India. 

The liberty of the expression of opinion is now universal. 
The Bengali, fond of expression and of writing under the shadow 
of the Government House in Calcutta, -can write what he pleases 
about any officer in the land, from the humblest citizen to the 
governor-general himself. 

A national Congress has been formed by the natives for all 
India. It meets annually, and aims at still larger political lib- 
erty, and still further social reform. It has among its members 
Hindus, Mohammedans, and even native Christians. It does 
much talking, and declares for a national parliament, with In- 
dian representatives. This Congress is doing more than all other 
native forces to develop a national, but not disloyal, feeling 
among the native population. Literary societies and debating 
clubs are springing up in all the centres of population. The 
government watches all these evidences of native aspiration, and 
is gracious and patient in the extreme. Sometimes a stormy 
and fearless native makes a good point against the government, 
which, we may well suppose, is not forgotten, and in due time 
will bear good fruit. For example, Syed Mohammed Husain 
shows a glaring inconsistency in the matter of duties and home 
production, when he says : " We export wheat, and pay highly 
for making it into biscuits, vermicelli, and macaroni. We pro- 
duce sugar, and pay again for manufacturing loaf-sugar. We 
produce tobacco, and pay again for bird's-eye. We export hides, 
but pay again for saddles, harness, patent-leather, boots and 
shoes. For patent-leather we pay four or five times as much 
as we received originally for our hides." * 

* "Our Difficulties and our Wants in the Path of the Progress of India," 
p. 71. London, 1884. 



764 INBIKA. 

India now sells far more than she buys. Every year the ex- 
port of her staples exceeds her imports by 21,000,000 pounds 
sterling. The old native rate of interest in the rural regions 
was 3T|- per cent. Now the native in the country, if he has 
land to pledge, can borrow at one third of that rate. Seven 
per cent, is regarded by the Calcutta merchant as a good in- 
vestment.* 

Many of the early industries, which existed when England 
took possession of the country, have been developed within the 
last few decades to remarkable proportions. The cotton of India 
being found inferior to that of the United States, the govern- 
ment has introduced American cotton-plants and American la- 
borers, and already India is becoming one of the greatest 
cotton-producing countries of the world. She is rapidly learn- 
ing the art of converting the fibre into woven fabric. A famil- 
iar picture still is the humble weaver, slowly working away 
with hands and feet at his primitive loom, which has probably 
undergone not the least change since the Kig Veda was first 
written on palm-leaves. But the English loom, and that carried 
by steam, is now taking the place of the few rough sticks and 
cords of the old household loom. The Indians are learning the 
secret which our "Western States have alread}^ learned— to save 
the cost of transportation by producing its own manufactures. 
I visited an immense cotton-factory in Cawnpore, where steam 
and all the improved machinery of Europe are used. Englishmen 
manage the business, but the natives perform the manual labor. ' 

The development of the natural resources of India by the 
English has been remarkable. Millions of arable acres have 
been added to the productive power of the soil. One section 
alone, 13,000 square miles in area, has been brought under the 
plough, and now produces 18,000,000 pounds sterling in cereals. 
The earth itself has been penetrated, and made to yield its hid- 
den wealth for the enrichment of the masses. Coal-beds have 
been discovered in "Western Bengal, in the Central Provinces, in 
the Panjab, and even in Burma. The coal-mining, though still 
in its infancy, already employs fifty thousand men, exclusive of 
their families, and Sir Kichard Temple reckons the total annual 
output of the colliers at a million of tons, f The coal imported 

* Hunter, " How India is Governed," p. 43. t " India in 1880," p. 303. 



WHAT HAS ENGLAND DONE FOR INDIA? 765 

from England is six hundred thousand tons annually. But the 
native coal is continually taking the place of the English. Already 
the East Indian railway uses the Bengal coal, which costs but 
two rupees (eighty cents) per ton, w T hile the imported coal costs 
fifteen rupees (six dollars) per ton. Iron ore is found in several 
parts of the country, and in due time we may expect to hear of 
large smelting and foundry works. The diamonds of Bundel- 
khand, the pearl fisheries of Bahrein, the opals of Ajmir, and 
the rubies of Burma, will continue to supply in no small meas- 
ure the world's markets of precious stones. 

India is no longer the prey of Western ambitious powers. It 
is a solid part of the British possessions. It knows, because it 
sends its troops, that England cannot fight a battle in Europe 
without its help. The expansion of education among all classes 
of people, the physical care of the helpless classes, the subtle 
bond of the English language, the development of the soil, the 
utilizing of the mineral wealth, the opening of the country for 
the incoming of Western ideas, and, greater than all combined, 
the breaking down of all doors for the free spread of the Gospel, 
make the India of the last decade of the nineteenth century a 
perfect contrast with the India of the first decade of the eigh- 
teenth. England has never achieved grander victories on Wa- 
terloo or at Quebec than those which belong to her quiet and 
peaceful administration of India. The day has not yet dawned 
when it is possible to measure the whole magnitude of England's 
service to the millions of India. Generations must elapse before 
this can be done. When the hour does come, it will be seen 
that the Englishman has never been wiser or more humane on 
the Thames or the St. Lawrence than on the Ganges, the Indus, 
and the Godavari. The real fact is, not that he has con- 
quered the country, but that he has discovered it, and now 
governs it by as generous laws, and as even justice, as he rules 
over the millions within sight of his parliament at West- 
minster. 

" Is it no blessing," asks the Rev. George Bowen, for many 
years a resident in India and a careful observer of its develop- 
ment, " that the Hindu of to-day has a much grander and better 
world to look out upon than his father had ? The whole world, 
to his fathers, was Mlechcha, defiled, barbarous, beyond the pale 
of intercourse, abhorred even by the gods, who reserved their 



766 INBIKA. 

incarnations and manifold favors for the people of this country. 
Now, the educated Hindu thinks it a privilege to visit the Oc- 
cident and become acquainted with the marvels of civilization 
and art. Once the sympathies of the Hindu were cabined, 
cribbed, confined, shrivelled up to the confines of his own 
caste ; now what is to hinder their expansion to the ends of the 
earth, and the comprehension of all nations in his fellow-feel- 
ing ?" * "We can hardly expect a Frenchman, with his memories 
of the great failure of France to acquire India, to be overjust to 
the English presence. Yet the following is the tribute which 
a French scholar pays to England in India : " Neither in the 
Yedic times, nor under the great Asoka, nor under the Moham- 
medan conquest, nor under the Moguls, all powerful as they 
were for a while, has India ever obeyed an authority so sweet, 
so intelligent, and so liberal." f 

Looking at the India of to-day, and comparing it with what 
it was before Yasco da Gama turned his vessels thither, and 
with what it was when Portuguese, Dutchmen, and Frenchmen 
contended for it, we may say with safety that England has been 
a blessing to the helpless continent. England has conquered 
India. But it has been less a conquest by steel and gunpowder 
than by all the great forces which constitute a Christian civili- 
zation. 

* Bombay Guardian. 

f Barth61emy St. Hilaire, " L'lnde Anglaise ; son £tat Actuel son Avenir," 
p. 154. 



APPENDIX 



APPENDIX. 



NO. I. 



PRINCIPAL DATES OF INDIAN HISTORY. 
I. — Prehistoric Period. 

B.O. 

1600. Settlement of the Aryans in tract between Saraswati and Ghaggar rivers, 

one hundred miles northwest of Delhi. 
1400. Arrangement of the Vedas by Vyasa. 
1400-1300. War described in the Mahabharata. 
1308. Invasion of India by Sesostris (mythical). 
1200. Rama's Invasion of the Dekhan. 

800. The date of the Institutes of Manu. 

543. Death of Gautama, or Sakya Muni. 

II. — Semi-Historic Period. 
518. Persian invasion under Darius Hystaspes. 
500-400. Pandya kingdom of Madura founded. 
330. Herat founded by Alexander the Great. 
327. Invasion of India by Alexander the Great. 
302. Mission of Megasthenes. 
260-220. Asoka, the great patron of Buddhism. 
104-76. Buddhistical books of Ceylon. 
57. Era of Vikramaditya, King of Ujjain. 

A.D. 

100. Sah Dynasty of Gujerat. 

399. Travels ofFa-Hian. 

629-645. Travels of Hiouen Tlisang. 

800-1400. Puranas. 
1009. Birth of Ramanuja. 
1186-1206. Mohammed of Ghor. 
1206-1288. First Slave Dynasty in Delhi. 
1217. Chengiz Khan. First Mogul irruption. 
1294. First Mohammedan invasion of the Dekhan. 
1398. Timur (Tamerlane) in Delhi. Second great Mogul invasion. 
49 



770 APPENDIX. 

1482. Baber. 

1486. Bartholomew Diaz. 

1498. Vasco da Gama. 

1505-1508. Francisco Almeyda, first Portuguese viceroy. 

1508-1515. Alfonso Albuquerque, second Portuguese viceroy. 

III. — Mogul Period. 

a.d. 1524-1857. 
1524. Baber founds the great Mogul empire in India. He is the first of the 

six great Mogul emperors. 
1527. Conquest of the Rajputs by the Moguls. 
1530. Humayun, second great Mogul .emperor. 
1540. Francis Xavier in India. 
1542. Birth of Akbar. 

1556. Accession of Akbar, the third Mogul emperor. 
Akbar's Conquests : 

1567. He conquers his own feudatories. 

1572. Subdues the Rajputs. 

1573. Conquers Gujerat. 
1586. He conquers Kashmir. 

1592. Annexes Bengal, Behar, and Orissa. 

1592. Conquers Sind. 

1594. Conquers Afghanistan. 
1580-1656. Downfall of the Portuguese. 
1583. First English in India. 
1594. The Dutch in India. 

1600. Incorporation of the British East India Company. 
1605. Accession of Jahangir, the fourth Mogul emperor. 
1627. Accession of Shah Jahan, the fifth Mogul emperor. 
1631. Portuguese driven out of Bengal. 
1658. Aurangzeb, sixth Mogul emperor. 
1664. The French in India. 
1683-1707. Aurangzeb's war in the Dekhan. 
1702. Birth of Haidar Ali, of Mysore. 
1707. The Sikhs nearly exterminated. 
1725. Birth of Robert Clive. 
1732. Birth of Robert Hastings. 
1744. Clive lands in India. 

IV. — The English Period. 

a.d. 1748-1889. 
1748. Lawrence lands in India. 

1756. Massacre of the Black Hole. 

1757, Battle of Plassey, India secured to England. 

1783. Peace of Versailles. Dutch possessions become English. 
1786-1793. Cornwallis second governor-general. 
1793. Lord Teignmouth third governor-general. 



APPENDIX. 771 

1818. Death of Warren Hastings. 

1840-1842. The Opium War. 

1853. Opening of the first Indian railway. 

1857. Sepoy Mutiny breaks out. 

1858. The conquest of the Mutiny. India safe under the English crown. 
1877. Queen Victoria is declared Empress of India.* 

V. — Governors and Governors-General op India under the East 

India Company, 
a.d. 1758-1858. 
1758-1767. Lord Clive. 
1767-1768. Harry Verelst. 
1769-1771. John Cartier. 
1772-1785. Warren Hastings. 
1786-1793. Lord Cornwallis. 
1793-1798. Lord Teignmouth. 
1798-1805. Marquis Wellesley. 
1805-1806. Lord Cornwallis (second term). 
1806-1813. Lord Minto. 

1813-1823. Marquis of Hastings (Earl Moira). 
1823-1828. Earl Amherst. 
1828-1835. Lord Bentinck. 
1836-1842. Lord Auckland. 
1842-1844. Lord Ellenbrough. 
1844-1847. Lord Hardinge. 
1848-1856. Earl of Dalhousie. 
1856-1857. Earl Canning. 

VI. — Viceroys of India under the Crown. 
1858-1861. Earl Canning. 
1862-1863. Earl of Elgin. 
1864-1869. Lord Lawrence. 
1869-1872. Lord Mayo. 
1872-1876. Lord Northbrook. 
1876-1880. Lord Lytton. 
1880-1885. Marquis of Ripon. 
1885-1888. Lord Dufferin. 
1888. Lord Lansdowne, present incumbent. 

* Graham is an excellent authority on the minute periods. See " Genealogical and 
Chronological Tables Illustrative of Indian History," 2d ed., London, 1880. 



•772 



APPENDIX. 



EH 

Eh 
O 

t> 

»— i 

P 

O 

X 

cq" 

o 

l-H 

o 

« 

w 

o 
o 

1—1 
H 
<1 
>A 

Oh 
O 
dn 

Q 

<^ 

P3 





d 


o 




































o 


































iHlW 






D CO 
CO CO 


■t- r-l ■* ©OS 




Jr- © h >o 




00 




— .2 


O lO r-l CM CM 




CM © £~ J^ 






-I •<* 


© CM 




'd s 


a >-i 




-1 r-l CM — 1 














H CM 




&S 






































Cl, g 






































»- 3 






































O 3 


Cm 




































5> CO 
'to O 

a ** 

CO 


O 

1 S 

S5 co 

d r-l 


co so i- tJ< os 




OS CO CO -# 




J^- CO 00 i— 1 © 




Tt< CM O CM CM 




oo f- co co 




OS CO 


OS 








1 r-l CM i-H 




co co •* r-t 












CM 




R 






































d _; 
° S3 




lO CM CO H Tf 




t~ CD lO i~ 




CD CO O t- CM 






£- CO 00 00 i—i 




CM CO CM CO 




•rfl "* © lO' rH 




H 00 






; os cm ■- 


■1 ■* 




H <* CO T(l 




rH CO © rH lO 




o --i 








































CO © 00 OS t)< 




© Os J^ © 




SO .t- © SO 




1 5" 




so £~ J> co io 




CO OS © iO 




© © CO ■- 


H ■* 






^ CD H 00 T* 




lO CO ■# CO 




00 *- 


00 -rff 










































o. -a 






<M 


© CD 




CO CM rH 00 




os c - 


•>* 




O r® 










co i—i 




CO CO i- 














OS 




PL, rH 










































OS -* CM ©CD 




OO -r>i © 00 




-r)H © lO CM CM 




d 




CO lO f 


■1 CM © 




£- © lO Os 




CM J>> ■* t- CM 




o 




00 CD CO 




© CM ■- 


1 "*.. 




00 •* OS Oi © 




cs r^ 








































CD £- 00 lO Oi 




CO i- 


< CO rH 




CO -H/l SO tH CD 




^ 00 




CT> (M CD 00 ^ 




co oo c>a i— i 




t— lO CM CM lO 






co cm r-i m n 




£- £- CM CD 






t. ""1. 


rH_ CO 




o 

Ph. 






CM 




H CD 




©" ©" r- 


-1 Jr- 




oo <• 


■tJh" co" 












CO i- 




CD CO rH rH 












00 






































1-1 




^ 




■* as © os i-H 




CO <M © CO 




rH CO 


rJH Os 




S 00 




CO -* © .c- t- 






■i JO r- 


H J> 




OS SO 


CO SO 






■^ CO OS i- 


H CO 






< "* JT- Th 




CM CM 


OS -<*< 










































•° of 




CO r- 


< CM N 1)1 




i— 1 CO CO lO 




-*( OS 


CM J^ 








OS OS CM 




CD — 








*~ CM 


rH f- 




£3 m 






■* 


00 CM 




># CO •* c 




CO CO 


J> OS 










































p-i o 










SO c ■ 




© CO t ■ 












lO 




a 
















7 ~~ i 
















CO 




tH 






































O „; 






































2 .2 




CM CO i—l CM lO 




CM t^ CM CM 




00 Os CM r- 


1 OS 




■c n 










CM C 




SO CO r- 


H CO 








< CO 




£ d 

to O 


































CM 




5 Q 












































































!E a 












•* 




Os J 




co tr 




< 1 


























1—1 












1 




.5 J 




© oo cc © co 




i> CO CO © 




CO © SO -r| 


OS 






i-i CM 00 CO »o 




a rr 






© cm oo a 


CO 








*- J> SO ■* ■* 




OS i-~ 


CM © 




CM CM CM Ci- 


OS 




CD S 








































CM J 






i< t- 




•* J> CO 1 


-D-~ 




-< -j* 








■* CM 




lO 00 CM © 




co oo 


IT 


oo 




02 












1—1 




r ~ l 




rH 












00 










































CO 










































cu 










































o 










































.5 




O 






































'> 




a 




































o 




o 








































"3 












s 




















t: 




Cm 




tri 














• 




CU 














3 
_0 




b 




d 


















CJ 














-x 




CO 
















s 


o 












S 






h 




cu 




■ 2 •S 
.3 •< 












eS 


cp 




3 








3 

o 






ci 




s 




O o 


£ 










"a 


o 




£ 














O 








£ s 


CU 










02 


C: 




c 








• ~ 


a 




S5 




OS 

3 




-5 


03 








CO 


rO 






a 








s 

s 




s 

3 


■73 

3 




a* 




.d 


© 








o 


'g 






cu 








o 


o 


3 


cc! 




"3 




•a 

a 

3 


53 

> 
o 
O 






6 

5 


c 

1 s 


r»> 

a 

-Q 

s 


3 

cu 

rJ 


& 


o 


3 






<u 

5 


"3 

3 


P2 


s 

3 
CS 
r3 


5 

00 


o 

CH 






<i 


s CU 


o 

m 


CU 


3 
pq 


^ 


o 


3 


3 

a 




cq 


3 


CO 

< 








EH 








H 




H 










tn 













APPENDIX. 



773 









CM00CMOS—hcMOSOS©OScOi— IJ>»JO©OSIO.J>» 1 CO 


i—i J: 


3 JO 






Cm 


(N t-O ffi 0O - 'OOCOOi-H-O-Oi-HCMCMTtH-cHi— 1 lao 


oo o 






O 

1 » 

2 00 

g *-" 


.£>cOCOC00010.C--*JtOCOC<I-t— OSCO^HrH©C! 
O N 00 <D C lO* J>" •>#* ©" co" Co" so" Co" £-"" CM*" jo" CO*" C 


S 00 
5" ©*" 


CO c 


- ^ 






cO.C~.C-00©©cOJOCOCO©CGTtt©,— • © OS -: 


ft -* 


CO T 


t CO 




ci 


•* CO_ i— I i-h_ CM^ ©^ r-i i-<_ rn CO J>- rft "* JS- iffl 50 
CM ^h OS t— i os" CM cT -^i" co" co" i— l" of i— T co" 


*i. "^ 
s" CO*" 


CM T 


H 00_ 

co*" 




: 






i-i to COi-icqi-HCMo 


3 JO 




JO 




3 

Pi 








CM 




CM 




SJ^INtNHrtCJOlOOOCNOt-OiJ^MC 


rs i— i 


cm j; 






O 




ODJOHn^J>0(Nilrit-^'*inO)0:CO.; 


5 CO 


CM i- 


H © 


C3 


~ 


o 


CO_ cO_ CO_ -ch_ JO OtJ O CM OS JO OS ■* £~ i—i JO JO CO J- 

s t- oo o o" ts o" o" jo" i—" rjT rfi" jc-*" co*" i—T co" co" o 


5_ ©_ 
3*" cm" 


©__ Ci 

o" T 


h" i-T 


O 






OscMOJOcOOSO©cMcOCMjO-hcMGOCMCOC 


3 CO 


CO t; 


t I-H 


H 




2 ™ 


CO CM_ i— i ©_ CO ■— I O © ©i-hi— 'TfcMOSCMr-Hcl 
CM O CO O OJ w Co" "^f" CO~ — ■" i— T CM~ os" co" t 


o co 
* ©" 


CM t; 


ft rH 










■—I to CO i— I CM <M Q 


3 -* 
CM 




CM 




©cocxi©oO'!ti©co)0£-Tt<©coixcic<i-t>a 


3 © 


oo cc 


-* 




co 


HjlflOOOJfflOfflOOOJOOtMt-H^^^^ 


H i-H 


ir- a 


.c~ 




aj co 


X>_ X> US_ lO^ © i» O O! <M t)( M (>] CO <jq j> © CO c 


i co 




; jo 




c ~ 


CM -C- i— I © os" © ©" -*" co" co" jo" J>^ co" Tt<" i—T CO*" i-h" c 


i Tft" 




h" jo*" 




CKl -^ 




eooocooo ©>ooooo(M(Mi— icaif 


5 OS 




OS 






r-l CM ON r-i i-i i- 


■1 ■*_ 




■* 










rH " 




"- , " 










OS *— I (M OS OS <M T^ C0©r-Ht4 


3 © 










o 




OS 00 — CO CD OS CM 00 O CO C 


3 1-H 












COOOio.t>Tti rti rjn to O CD t 


1. ■ c ~ 












1 1 


co - " © o~ t-~ -^r i co*" i i re" i i— r ©" r-T i- 


l" J>" 










g CO 


1 1 


00 © o to io 1 © 1 1 •* 1 to © tH C 


3 CO 










« 




i-HCNOi— ii— i to J^ 00 j> cs c 


' J ~ xa 




















to 


_o 


O 




TfOSi— iOsCN CM CO n to ci 


i rfT 






_£ 






1—1 


o 






cS 


3 
a, 






CN H h O Jfl © CO CO© (MO 


s os 











o 




i— I t- t- O CM ■*# -^ OSi— 1000< 


o co 






co 


Hi 




■* JO CO O CM ^l JO ©t-^ci 


- °-. 






to 




3 t~ 


1 1 


io" ©"" cm" ©* ©" 1 00*" 1 1 co" 1 ©" Os" r)T r- 


r to" 










2 oo 


1 1 


JO CO OS o O l<M 1 1 CO 1 J> <* CO t 


' CM 










a i-H 




© CO i— I © © CO CO CO©i~5' 


L ° 




















03 




O 




JO X O OS CM CM Oi—icOC 


r v 














JO 






fc 






















©00-*Oc3S © JO CMCM000C 


to 








2 »i 




O OS OS C OS TJ" CM TjH I— i © 1- 


1 CO 








3 <£ 


1 1 


JO^ ©_ os_ © co_ I -^ I I i— i I Jr- i— i t(< a 


3 CO 








03 "^ 


1 1 


©" os" ©*" ©" tjT 1 i-^" 1 1 is" 1 V os" co" o 


a" J>" 










COOOCOOO -* i— ICMCO 














r-l r-H 


CO 












JO M M C.t-.C--cocOic3.e-OSTjii- 


i CM 












.e- oo oo OcMJO^coNMiiiio; 


) rt 










o 


© OS CM ©1— 1 1— < CO -# CD TH ■— (Tfi- 


t JO 


























« i 


eo © oo i , . . I coiot»»>oiaTiio 


3 i—i 










io.t-.t~ CO co ■— i o * O JS C JO c 


i Tjt 










§ * 


f <9 rt KJOOt-ffl^OOOO^o; 


i. "^t 
























q 


o 


CM 


CO^COUhCOOJCOC 


r co*" 








o 






CO CO i—i i—l i— i c 


OS 






















co 


ctf 
r 
















OS Tf CM JOQ0S<I©tH©00-*COC 


CM 








o 


«w 


CO JO i- 


Tt<-t--C^£-©JOOscM©C' 


<M 






a 


Pi 





oo o oj ©coiijioifflTfoocNo: 


©_ 






















> 




Is 


CO .t- GO I . | | , JOMT(i^MMHMO)Jf 


CO*" 








OS <M to cMCO'MlO00cMi-H.t--'*a: 


JO 






o 




CO CM ■— I ' ' 1 ■ 1 t- i— ii— i .t- CM CO i— i CO C 


CO 






Pi 




u 


CM 


©■*ec©r-ij>ootoi- 


CO 












CO CO r— 1 ■— 1 i-H O" 


co 








© oo c<; 


jor--#©ooco©oococ 


OS 










i— i cm or 


CODlflOSCI^rtHCiOO! 


CO 










t~ .c- »c 


I | I | 1 CNCimOJt-CMOCNH/it 


OS 
























<M f~ r- 


I I I I I ctjioia>r-^>^ccc 


JV~ 










lOOCOCOCNCCOtN^ 


CO 












M I-H I-H i- 


CO 






a 

la 


i 














































IT 


.5 


B 
















































£3 


*2 


















































c 







J 
> 


*5 


















00 

"3 
c 






a 






CJ 

ca 








co 'c7 

c cr 

.- CO 


JHH 


























CS CO 












*ra 


[ 

c 

V 
c 

fo- 


1 

1 


5 
£ 

s 
5 


'■5 


g 

= a 
PQ 


b 

5 


a 


a 


C C 

l— • 5 

g 1 


a 

oi 

- -if 


cc3 

c 

1 


2 is 

S3 0, 

<! PC 


s 

CO 


British Burm 
N. W. Provin 
Ondh 


.a 


o 

5 > 

Jo? 

*S £ 

<u c 
O PC 


1 xr 

r. 
■- 

« 


"E 
1— 

X- 
a 




CZJ CO 
CO O 

CO '^ 

o $ 
Ph 0J 

S3 
-S3 c 
U S3 


o 
"3 
o 
EH 






o 








M O 








& 






1—1 


fet Ph 





774 



APPENDIX. 



NO. III.— PRINCIPAL INDEPENDENT NATIVE STATES. 



Area in 

Square Miles. 



Population. 



Revenue. 



Kashmir 

Kapurthala 

Mandi 

Chamba 

Suket 

Bahawalpur ~ 

Pattiala 

Jhind 

Nabha 

Kalsia 

Maler Kotla 

Faridkot and Dujana 

Loharu and Patandi 

Nepaul 

Sikkim 

Bhutan 

Udaipur 

Jeypore 

Jodhpore 

Bundi 

Kota 

Jhallawar 

Tonk 

Karauli 

Kishungurh 

Dholpur 

Bharatpur 

Alwar 

Bikanir 

Jessulmere 

Serohi 

Daugarpur and Banswarra 

Pertubgurh 

Shahpoora 

Gwalior 

Indore 

Bhopal 

Dhar 

Dewas 

Jaora 

Rewa 

Tehri 

Dattia and Sampthar 

Baroda 

Kohlapore 

Sawunt Wari . 

Kutch 

Hyderabad 

Mysore 

Travancore 

Cochin 

Cooch Behar 

Manipur , 

Tippera 

Rampore 

Garhwal 

Total 



68,000 

1,650 

1,200 

3,216 

420 

22,000 

5,412 

1,236 

863 

155 

165 

700 

335 

54,000 

1,550 

2,000 

11,614 

15,250 

35,670 

2,300 

5,000 

2,500 

2,730 

1,870 

724 

1,600 

1,974 

3,000 

24,000 

12,250 

3,200. 

2,500 

1,460 

1,200 

33,119 

8,015 

8,200 

2,500 

2,576 

872 

13,000 

2,000 

995 

4,399 

3,184 

900 

6,500 

98,000 

27,070 

5,630 

1,360 

1,306 

3,000 

3,867 

945 

4,180 



522,362 



1,600,000 

470,000 

135,000 

140,000 

45,358 

500,000 

1,650,000 

311,000 

300,000 

62,000 

46,200 

95,000 

43,000 

2,000,000 

7,000 

60,000 

1,161,400 

1,995,000 

2,000,000 

224,000 

450,000 

226,000 

320,000 

124,000 

105,000 

500,000 

743,710 

778,596 

300,000 

75,000 

55,000 

250,000 

150,000 

133,000 

2,500,000 

635,400 

769,200 

150,000 

121,800 

85,500 

2,035,000 

195,000 

288,000 

2,000,000 

802,690 

190,814 

500,000 

10,500,000 

5,055,000 

2,311,380 

598,350 

532,565 

126,000 

74,242 

507,013 

150,000 



47,133,218 



£ 

823,200 

170,000 

36,500 

19,000 

6,775 

200,000 

440,000 

65,000 

65,000 

13,000 

28,000 

90,000 

14,700 

1,000,000 

700 

64,000 

475,000 

250,000 

80,000 

200,000 

160,000 

110,000 

50,000 

130,000 

110,000 

287,500 

230,000 

102,032 

10,000 

11,000 

45,000 

60,000 

30,000 

1,200,000 

500,000 

268,340 

80,000 

60,000 

79,930 

250,000 

90,000 

140,000 

1,150,000 

304,720 

29,400 

130,000 

2,000,000 

1,029,900 

535,000 

130,850 

100,000 

5,000 

18,690 

146,400 

80,000 



13,695,637 



APPENDIX. 



775 



isro. rv. 



The following table shows the number of candidates who 
came up from each province, the number passed, and the per- 
centage of successful candidates for the years 1885 and 1886 : 



ENTRANCE EXAMINATION. 



Provinces. 


1885. 


1886. 


Number 
of Can- 
didates. 


Number 
passed. 


Per- 
centage. 


Number 
of Can- 
didates. 


Number 
passed. 


Per- 
centage. 


Bengal 


2980 

110 

724 

22 

16 

102 

201 

64 

2 

58 

38 


1070 

40 

208 

8 

6 

34 

50 

21 

13 
13 


35.9 
36.36 

28.72 

36.36 

37.5 

33.33 

24.87 

32.81 

22.41 
34.21 


3172 
99 

715 
27 
11 
67 

190 
45 

51 
16 


913 

39 

237 

9 

2 
28 
70 

9 

23 

7 


28.78 
39.39 
33.14 
33,33 
18.18 
41.79 
36.84 
20 

45.09 
43.75 


Assam 


Northwest Provinces and Oudh... . 
Raiputana 


Jaypur 


Central Provinces 


Central India States 


Nepal 


Burrnah 


Ceylon 


Total 


4317 


1463 


33.88 


4393 


1337 


30.43 



The number of candidates who failed in one subject only is 
subjoined : 



English 501 

Mathematics 323 

Second Language 96 

History and Geography 9 



776 



APPENDIX. 



o 

to 
m 
< 
Ph 

03 

ca 

a 

so CO 

| S 
"•I c 

a 3 



!> 



O 
M EH 

* s 

x 

EH 
CO 
« 

r= 

EH 
<J 
CO 

EH 
«1 

ft 

i—i 

S? 
«} 
O 

o 

P5 

a 

53 



"» 


J* 


•passed 'O^j 


1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 LI 1 III I 1 HI 




•sa^BpipuuQ 
jo ■<>*[ 


1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 I 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 I I I I | I |c | 


License 
in 
Engineer- 
ing. 


*p3S3Bd *0J^ 


i i i i i i i i i i i i i ri i i i i i i i i .i i i i i ** i 


•sajBptpuBQ 
jo -on 


1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 II 1 II II 1 1 1 1 -- 


sJh| 


■passBd "o^ 


1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 • 1 '1 1 1 1 1 1 . 1 1 1 1 1 1 II I Id » | « | 


•sainpipireo 
jo 'ON 


i i i.i i i i i i i i i i i i-i i i i i i i i i i 1*° s -*s i 


Bachelor 
in Civil 
Engineer- 
ing. 


■passed -oft 


| | | | | | | |. | | | | rH 1 | rtrt | COCOCOrH | CO | | CO | III 


•seiupipau^ 
jo -on 


j || 1 ; | I | i-i | in cmt* cmh* ca o t-m-* 1 1 cm i j j j 


License 
in Civil 
Engineer- 
ing. 


■pOSSBd 'Oft 


1 | !S h« IIOCN |OCM-"*COCMC-CNCMtOiacClO 1 Offldn 1 CM 1 1 


•sa^epipaBQ 
jo -on 


1 1 1 1 O CO 1 OI0Cl!0«t-0)CT^C0CTCD(N'*HHt-ClC'» Ca »0 1 1 

1 1 1 IHH IH HHriCIHHniSOClrt rH 


(S-| 


■passBd -Oft 


1 1 1 1 |h« |rH | | i | | | || | |.| | | |~ | | | | III 


•sajBpipuB;} 
jo -oh 


1 1 1 1 |H««.H | | | | 1 | | | | 1 1 1 ! 1- 1 1 1 1 IN 


z 

si 

a 


4|- 


•p9SSBd 'Ofl 


| 1 1 | I 1 1 | 1 1 dMCTHrtnCSH I nt-t-t-C*0!Ot- Ca rH CO | 


•sajBpipuBQ 
jo 'ON 


1 1 1 1 1 | 1 1 1 |CSlTtlCMrHCMm-*CNrHlOCOOCac-"OrHCO rH O IS 1 
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 rH ri rH <M H <M CM CO 1 




•paesud 'o^ 


| I 1 1 I | 1 LCHOrHi-HCM^CM 1 |HJ(C-Caaar-C--*rH<N<M rH CO CM 1 


■SSJBpipUBQ 

jo -on 


1 1 1 I 1 1 1 1 CM O CM (M CO •>* CM CM ri CC rH -* CO CM -# 3a CM 00 O 00 t- O 1 
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 rH rH CM CM rH CM CO CO ^K CO CSI CO 1 


- * 

-co 

a ■< 
3 


Is • 

g'g o 

CO x "" 

H 


■passBd *o^ 


1 1 | 1 -HH t~ h* rH CO CD in rH Ca O t- t- CO :£> CO Ca CO --* Oa lO t- © ■•# r-i CO iO CO 
1 1 1 1 rH rH rH rH CM rn rH rH CM CM CM CO rH CM CO rH tO rH rH rH 


•sainpipaBO 

JO 'Oist 


■ 1 , lOt-CaiCO^COCOOt-aaCMOOt-CMiOOrHrHrHt-rHCa t~ 10 ca to 
] |CMrHrHCMCNCMrHrHCM CM-*K-*-<*-<#OtOCaaarH«#COrH CM 


£ s'S 


•passad 'Oft 


CM -* CM CO t- CO =C CM ■* O t-5D t- CM CO da rH -* rH O to O «5 •* III | CO rH rH 


•sa^BpipuB^ 

J° 'ON 


CMOrHrHCDC0lCCM-HHlO**10rHSO0000C--C0IOrHtDTrcOC0CMC0 i *# CaCOrH 
H^COBHmcO-'dncOHJ^tDlOiOOt-HLOt-SSO^rt CM 
r-t rH r^ r-i tH ' 


o i 
n \S 


•passBd 'oft 


1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 II 1 1 1 1 1.1 1 |« 1 1 | | M rt rH | | 


•sa;nptpnB3 
jo •b.M 


1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 H | | | | | rH rH rH | | 


-2 & 
■S J 
ca.S 


•passBd 'oft 


1 HCCOC0Q0101t-HQ0HH^(NO000;O-5HHOiD-t-t-0i!D (M 1— CS <N 


•sa^BpipuBQ 
jo -o^E 


1 C10Nt-MWNt-?10«XI>rtOt-«HCD«HTtlOiOffiO CO C000C0 

HWMHHH«HWCOL-OJCOCOOCOOC-COOOOOOOOmO!N CS ^OlN 

rlHH rlH rHiMC^ 


Master License 
of Arts. in Law. 


■passBd "o^; 


| | | iSoocarH.oco^cocgcooMr-;^^ | | | || | | || | ill 


•sa;BpipuBj 
jo "ON 


| | | I^SrH^r^SSSSScIS 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 III 


•passud 'Oft 


1 1 1 1 1 |«OWHWeHOQO^ltS^OC , !IOO^HQOM'Ml>«TH ■«* ^HO 1 

1 1 1 1 1 1 rtH«HH(MCO(MiNCOH(NCO^ICNCOCOrt'NH CD ML- 1 


•Ba^BpipUBQ 

jo -om 


H H CO IM (N CO CO CO CO lO CO CO "* © -^ io m t- 00 00 CD | 




•passBd -oft 


1 C^O«iOTHlQOlOOOCft^COH(00(riOCO'sHXHC < IlftlOlr-Ot-t-« • 
HHrlNCMCO'*C-C05[-QCOOlNOiO>t-'*«00)HL':ODClC10uO 

r- IH rH t— It— iHHtMr- ICOr)( ' 


•SajBpiptlBQ 

jo -u N 


I «OWCft^WOC^CNH(N^ONNff!ICNt-Ht-COCOOi(NCOOHCr.OOOS I 

1 HCNtOCOCODOtOOOW^Ht-HHCO^HHCOCOCTCTHlOWCOOilOlC | 
HHClrHC^C1CTC;iN(NCN(N(NCOCO?OCOTjHOCl'^CO 


*|2 


•passBd *o^j 


1 1 1 |'#C!iO:H'NHCOC<JincO'*OlflM'MTH cot- O X ■* !D 00 ■* t-CI | 

I 1 1 I a: r. -* c o m x o ri :: c :i c c x *** i* c :i r- c ■* c» co coo i 

HHCNrHrHCSCNC^CTCqCOHHCC^^CC^CO^O DO ^t t- 


•s9]v:pjpaB3 
jo -ok 


, mONH-OtOOOCOOOl-OOlCOiOCiHCOOCOCOOlQ CO CDCO 

C M L- CI •*# CI CO CI 71 tH O — 72 CO C- m Oi CI -H 00 CD O C7i t- O ^D 1 

1 1 1 ^c3cqcO'*'*co-*iOwinoinir:oc't-DOo;Qco-* to as ^ 1 

tH i-H i-t rH 




•passBd -o^ 


CTH^Clt-^CCTOCO^CNC-Cit-XOOOOOinClOOCncDOJCOlfl cot- 

c h co h t* t> c. c h ?: h - h r. c r: t c :: l: c - '_• c z o CO I cd CO | 
HHO^^^Ot-OecOWCOOt-QCOQCO^HOO-^^t- 1 -*co 1 
r-H rHi—tT-ii-Hr-tr-lT-(T-l Hi- 1 


•sajspipuEa 
jo 'ON 


^^HflJCO^t-fflOOt-THOWlMrjlTH^lMUSOt-t-Mt-HH ' t- CO 

■**HooHOc:ccon?:oo^Ti(ir)t-!NcsHa5snHC6 i tho i 
cm ■* -* oc ■ o t-h :■- :~ l- re io t- c- cri crs r-i uo cn co -* l— cd O 1 t- cs t-h id co co 


•HV3 A 


t-XDOHC-lCO-moOt-OOCr.OHlNCO^WCOQOOJO'^'NM -* io-*t- 
W «3 ift ^ a o ^ o ■- c :- ■-.- -j: i- |> r- r- t- t- t- t- L~ C- 00 CO CO CO 00 00 00 00 
CO CO GO 00 GO 00 CO 00 00 GO 00 OC 00 CO CO 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 CO CO 00 CO CO OC 00 00 











APPENDIX. 



777 



NO.V. 

The following tables present the extent to which the applicants 
for University degrees in the various provinces are distributed 
among the faiths of the whole country : 

BENGAL. 





Number 
of Can- 
didates. 


Number Passed. 


Religion. 


First 
Division. 


Second 
Division. 


Third 
Division. 


Total. 


Hindus 


2812 
205 
109 > 

46 4 


152 
7 
25 2 
1 


381 
35 
22 3 

8 6 


263 
9 
3 

7 6 


796 


Mohammedans 


51 


Christians 


50 


Others 


16 








3172 


185 


446 


282 


913 



ASSAM. 



Hindus 


88 
6 
5 


6 


15 

1 


14 
2 
1 


35 




3 


Others 


1 




Total 






99 


6 


16 


17 


39 



NORTHWEST PROVINCES AND OUDH. 





520 
115 
74 ' 
6 


17 

6 
13 8 

2 


93 

20 

13 9 

1 


56 

12 

4 


166 


Christians ' 


38 
30 


Others 


3 




Total 






715 


38 


127 


72 


237 



RAJPUTANA. 



Hindus 


20 
5 
2 


— 


6 
2 
1 


— 


6 


Mohammedans 


2 


Others 


1 




Total 






27 


— 


9 


— 


9 



JAYPUR. 



Hindus 


8 
1 
1 
1 


— 


1 
1 


— 


1 


Mohammedans 




Christians 




Others 


1 




Total 






11 


— 


2 


— 


2 



1 Of these 16 were females 
s « 4 « 

3 " 5 " 



4 Of these 5 were females. 'Of these 19 were females. 
6 " 1 was a female. 8 " 4 " 

6 ll 1 l( 9 (l Q ll 



778 



APPENDIX. 



PANJAB. 





Number 
of Can- 
didates. 


Number Passed. 


Religion. 


First 
Division. 


Second 
Division. 


Third 
Division. 


Total. 


Hindus 


27 

10 

28 J 

2 


3 
4 


1 

2 
9 


5 
1 

3 2 


9 

3 

16 


Mohammedans 


Christians 




Total 


67 


7 


12 


9 


28 



CENTRAL PROVINCES. 



Hindus 


167 
11 
10 

2 


12 
1 
1 


28 
3 
3 
1 


19 
1 
1 


59 
5 


Mohammedans 


Christians 


5 


Others 


I 




Total 






190 


14 


35 


21 


70 



CENTRAL INDIA STATES. 



Hindus 


33 
4 
2 
6 


1 


5 


3 


8 


Mohammedans 




Christians 


1 


Others 






Total 






45 


1 


5 


3 


9 



BURMAH. 



Mohammedans 


8 
19 
24 


1 

4 
3 


3 

5 
6 


1 


4 


Christians 


10 


Others 


9 




Total 






51 


8 


14 


•1 


23 



CEYLON. 





13 
3 


3 
2 


" 2 


— 


5 


Others 


2 




Total 






16 


5 


2 


— 


7 



1 Of these 5 were females. 



2 Of these 2 were females. 



APPENDIX. 



779 



5bit 



S3 § I * 

- O (6 s p 

*-• M CO l— 



i- 1 C — X 



CD CO 



3 kd =\ p i-s CD 

•M o CT <^ O CD 

m £T c n> 2 < 13 

™ * &■ cr p 3 -a 

„. S g "-< =• C CD 

3 K S. 3 (D 1 

g. S » CD ET Mi 

£g 2- 2. 3 21 g 3 



- S tr, 5 



°" D St 

S. Cl, q 



g. «. a. 2 3 

- 2. 3 o 

jgj P 3 - n- ^ 

§ 2 ^ © • o ^ ' "^ 

» 2. ~. 2 — 

~ OP. 3 < 3 



— S» CD CO 



Cl, P 

2 3 J, 

J?" o 



CD 3 

B- /T> 

BO* 



era g g- PS c? -a § 
g a cd 5 a, g <■ 



g- 3 S 



& =r s 



5" " i 

CD p 2 35 

§ ^ st 

P s o cr 

J» co '•<! p 



p 

09 


< 


■c 


a 


B 
3_ 


CD 

3 




CD 


- 


~ 


CD 


O 


l> 




00. 


3 

C 


3 

CD 




t/J 
CO 

p 


nl 


era 


P 


i" 


3 


5 


CD 



CM) 

00 

— 

o 


o* 


3 


P 


- 


O 


•-C 


tr+ 


3 


3 
p 


2. 

CD - 
GO 


cd 

^-5 




3- 


CD 


CD 

S. 


c_ 


=' 


o 


CD 

5' 


1-J 

B, 














_, 


" 


3 


T3 


MJ 




^ 


(.D 


13 




P 


3 


O 


s 


O 


uO 


CO 


CD 






■a 




n, 




CD 


J-. 


CD 


o 







p -J. 



Cu o -J 



CD IB 5 

CD ^ 
3D co jn 



CD 



CD 



to 

CD ~"= 

3 H rt- 

00. p- — 

C— . CO 00 





So 5 
re 3 
2. §■ 


A O^ 

2. r* 


^3 


zt & > 
^ 2 2 £ 
3 d; cJ? 2 


pi —. 


ff r 


2 S* 






H 
o 


ct s 






< r; 

5 " 






3 =• 


2. a 




5 






r" 


« 






« S- 






4- 


^ 




^r 






"*. 


CO 


CO 


en 


k* 
to 


■o 
o 




*> 


_J 


cs 


M 




00 


oo 


p3 


J3 


_eo 


JJl 


» 


1 


j^ 


^ 


t+- 


j* 


i+s 


00 






GO 




"os 


n 






00 


CO 






1 


CO 


M^ 


tf* 


en 








00 





to 


IK 






cc 






OS 


en 


o 




to 


OS 


t+^ 


CO 




CO 


V 


CO 


en 


** 


00 


■o 




CO 


OS 





h* 




00 


OS 




p 




JO 




1 


5^ 


p 


90 


P 


i+s 


CO 






o 


OS 


en 


OS 







"co 


cn 


"to 




1 


p 


^ 


bO 


tf* 


cc 






a< 


en 





IK 






CO 


OS 




en 


co 


a 




Oi 


OS 





-q 







M 


cc 


en 




M 


CO 














00 








oo 


n=* 


o 


9 




CO 




c-. 








o 


CO 


to 


00 


J3 


1 


..*" 


J° 


CO 




tte 




to 


00 




9 




to 


"to 


CO 


CO 




1 


~ci 




Cl 






iC 




to 













o 


to 


en 


o 


to 


to 




ot 




--O 


































J-" 


CO 


en 




h-l 


» 














00 








hK 


to 






CO 


-q 


en 






_C0 


Jjh 


JO 


JO 


p 


-S 


1 


J-J 


p 




JO 


t+s 


"to 




"oo 




•o 




"to 


"cO 


CO 


"cO 




1 


"bo 




CO 


o 


so 











OS 






p 


a 


to 


oo 


cc 


00 







OS 


to 


OS 




to 


"os 


CO 


OS 


** 


to 


CO 
F* 




lf^ 


-q 


w 


to 




l_l 

00 


Cn 


J-" 


JO 


aa 


JK 


OS 


1 


J**" 


ja 


9 


J -4 


t*s 






"co 


"os 


F* 






"co 




OS 




1 


"o 






to 


o 






CO 













co 


o 


cs 




CO 


to 







01 


cc 







CO 


• M 
























,_, 


o. 


CO 


Cs 
CO 


K 


til 


s 




cn 


-q 


pt 


to 




00 


-q 

00 


CO 


JO 


OO 


00 
'hK 


F* 
^C 


1 


"0 


j-q 

"cO 


to 


p 

"os 


J^s 


f 


"co 








en 


o 




CO 


to 


cc 


CO 






to 


~* 


to 


H> 


CO 


Ol 




CO 





O! 


CO 




IK 


J-> 


CO 
CO 


CS 

to 


Ol 


to 


Q0 

LO 




OI 


00 


OS 


to 




00 


• o 


J**" 


s° 


p 


CD 

"hK 


-q 


-q 


ca 


j-q 


be 


_co 


i*s 


"ci 






CO 


O 


to 


^ 


00 


CO 


CO 


CO 






CO 


Cl 


CO 


OS 


en, 


to 


yi 


CO 


to 


M 


to 




en 


~-3 


CO 


■ OS 
OS 


en 


CO 


CO 




01 


CO 


en 


to 




00 
-q 

en 


S» 




jm 


JO 


j-q 


Jl 


CO 


-p° 


JO 


j— 


-1° 


its 




""n*- 


"o 


"cO 


"cO 


o 


~ 


OS 


"hf* 


r^ 


00 






O 




to 


o 




>o 


2 




IK 










CD 
to 


If* 


IK 


CO 


O 


ta 


1-1 


^ 


OS 


1-1 


IK 




OS 


J- 1 


CO 


en 




M 


cc 














h-» 




en 


CO 


Cn 


o 


-.-] 




-0 


CO 


cn 


to 




f 


00 


-q 


Cl 




-q 


hK 




CO 


en 
co 


to 


cn 


i+s 




-J 




CO 


CO 


o 


l» 


00 


-3 


c 








CO 


-3 


CO 


cs 


OS 




c; 


" 


en 


to 


OS 




"* 


^ 
























M 




CO 


en 






M^ 














O0 


o 


cn 




en 


co 


O 






co 




to 




cn 


Jo 


jK 


J 3 * 


j-q 


en 


o 


^to 


p 


j^ 


JO 


^s 


-q 




"oo 


V. 


oo 


"o 


GO 


3. 


"0 


"0 




"00 




1 

3o 






o 


CO 


CC 




31 


H* 






l+- 




-^1 


If* 


cs 


CO 


o 


ta 




-q 


CO 












"*cc 


CO 

en 


OS 

to 


CT 


cc 


tK 


M 




eO 


01 


to 




00 

-q 
00 


o 




CO 


o 




-j 




to 


00 


rf* 


CO 


^ 




to 


to 


CO 


00 


to 




CO 





ccc 


to 






o 


b3 


OS 


o 




en 


CC 




OS 


— 








OS 


o 


to 


to 


en 




tn 


CO 


CO 


CO 







CO 


y^l 
























,. 


"o 


CO 


OS 


or 


en 


c 


K* 


-q 


CO 


«q 


to 




GO 

-q 

CO 


ta 


s° 


j-q 


JK 






-* 


J*- 1 


p 


!+~ 


i° 


J^s 








"to 


"co 


CO 


•o 





"0 


OS 









CO 




IK 


Ik 




CO 


-1 







ht* 









00 

to 


I- 1 


to 


00 


»q 


CO 


CO 


as 


rK 


h- 


-J 







JiS 


If* 


OS 




W 


en 






M 








00 






o 


OS 


o 


CO 




-1 


O 








00 


J 35 




>4- 


J 31 


■z. 


M^- 


.r 1 * 


P 


J.O 


,5° 


tb 


9 




"h- 1 




Ol 


to 


cc 


o 


H>- 




ba 


CO 






to 




oo 


OS 


CO 


OS 


>+- 


O 












o 


to 


-q 


o 




rr- 


■^ 


»+*■ 


CO 


>K 


CO 




h-L 


"co 


rf* 


OS 
CO 


OS 


to 
to 


CT 


-1 


-q 


to 


CO 


CO 




CO 
CO 


OD 


cc 


J3S 


JO 


JK 


ZJ1 


31 


_po 


p 


p 


p 


ys 




*co 


"cO 




"cO 


-q 




"to 


"#* 


CO 


to 






CTt 






CO 




to 


Cn 


Cl 






to 






o 


hf* 


o 


OS 


en 


cn 


OS 


cn 


00 


en 


to 




to 


..fcB 


UT 


OS 




to 


cn 






M 


K* 






00 
00 


"fe 


en 


CO 


<1 


hK 


o 




-3 


CO 


M 






_o 


OS 

"co 


OS 


o 


"en 


» 


K 


"*■ 


^0 


X 


"to 


th 




CD 


to 


-q 


—7 


cc 




00 


-q 


■CC 








to 

CO 


to 


hf* 


00 




cc 




"^ 


OS 


10 


CO 




CO 


fS 


en 


OS 




to 


OS 






M 


M 






CO 
CO 
CO 


Cl 




CO 


00 






O 


-q 


hK 


VC 






o 






>4- 




cc 






OC 


-q 


OS 


t+s 






o 






cn 




-3 




^K 






1 






CO 




fK 


O 


c" 


CO 




K 


00. 




00 


Cl 
CO 


Cii 




IK 


O 




£) 


CO 


OS 


-q 


M 




l^- 



3 

d 

S p 

o ■ 
I— \ 
w 

O 

Kj 



780 



APPENDIX. 



NO. VII. 

OFFICIAL CENSUS OF THE TRADES AND OCCUPATIONS OF 
THE PEOPLE OF INDIA. 



Occupations. 



Officers of National Government 

Officers of Municipal, Local, and Village Government . . . 

Officers of Independent Government and States 

Army 

JSavy 

Clergymen, Ministers, Priests, Church and Temple Officers 

Lawyers, Stationers, and Law-Stamp Dealers 

Physicians, Surgeons, and Druggists 

Authors and Literary Persons 

Artists 

Musicians 

Actors 

Teachers 

Scientific Persons 

Wives of Specified Occupations 

Other Wives 

Engaged in Board and Lodgings 

Attendants (domestic servants) 

Mercantile Persons 

Other General Dealers 

Carriers on Railways 

Carriers on Roads 

Carriers on Canals and Rivers 

Carriers on Sea and Rivers. 

Engaged in Storage 

Messengers and Porters 

Agriculturists 

Horticulturists 

Persons engaged about Animals 

Workers in Books 

" Musical Instruments 

" Prints and Pictures 

" Carving and Figures 

" Tackle for Sports and Game 

" Designs, Models, and Dies 

" Watches and Philosophical Instruments. . . . 

" Surgical Instruments 

" Arms 

" Machines and Tools 

" Carriages 

" Harness 

Ships 

" Houses and Buildings 

" Furniture 

" Chemicals 

" Wool and Worsted 

Silk 



Males. 


Females. 


580,185 


6,352 


791,379 


17,764 


133,285 


865 


311,070 


1,682 


300 


— 


601,164 


94,251 


31,628 


10 


113,579 


75,239 


32,177 


3,464 


10,347 


584 


187,695 


19,631 


58,807 


40,381 


166,356 


4,345 


11,494 


127 


— 


471,774 


— 


3,321,366 


27,970 


14,515 


2,149,629 


651,965 


983,869 


1 24,409 


8S6,149 


286,464 


61,031 


1,157 


635,482 


13,770 


322,688 


2,877 


104,237 


574 


64,667 


2,157 


174,598 


15,063 


19,210 


15,866 


166,355 


54,448 


754,512 


235,830 


19,384 


127 


3,146 


568 


1,005 


79 


15,338 


4,463 


4,101 


1,283 


819 


16 


2,963 


57 


1 > 


— 


4,293 


245 


52,095 


9,979 


11,963 


235 


6,114 


781 


16,913 


358 


808,712 


27,741 


9,343 


797 


61,220 


19,813 


178,519 


69,670 


51,085 


34,355 



APPENDIX. 781 

CENSUS OF TRADES AND OCCUPATIONS.— Continued. 



Occupations. 



Males. 



Females. 



Workers in Cotton and Flax 

" Mixed Materials 

" Dress 

" Hemp and other Fibrous Materials 

" Animal Food 

" Vegetable Food 

" Drinks and Stimulants 

" Grease, Grit, Bones, Horn, Ivory, Whale- ) 
bone, and Lace ) 

" Skins, Feathers, and Quills 

" Hair 

" Gums and Resins 

Wool 

" Bark and Pith 

" Bamboo, Cane, Rush, Straw, and Leaves. . . . 

" Paper 

Miners 

Workers in Coal 

" Stone-clay 

" Earthenware 

" Glass 

" Salt 

" Water 

" Gold, Silver, and Precious Stones 

" Copper 

" Tin and Quicksilver 

" Zinc 

" Lead and Antimony 

" Brass and other Mixed Metals 

" Iron and Steel 

Laborers and others (branch of labor undefined) 

Other Persons of Indefinite Occupation 

Persons of Rank and Property not returned under any ) 

Office or Occupation J 

Persons of no stated Occupation 



2,607,579 
52,286 

2,082,191 
108,729 
640,521 

1,445,916 
708,699 

37,107 

263,056 

943 

489,618 

235,318 

3,092 

403,375 

7,670 

3,428 

2,602 

667,286 

569,128 

32,841 

63,011 

227,673 

459,157 

11,019 

10,419 

]39 

992 

123,165 

454,555 

7,248,491 

426,109 

48,262 
48,794,195 



2,877,876 

52,621 

733,089 

164,867 

449,205 

1,719,513 
204,331 

70,889 

48,559 

344 

273,169 

179,560 

68,550 

277,375 

1,410 

549 

1,161 

354,721 

259,839 

11,904 

23,922 

198,758 

13,799 

461 

461 

32 

155 

6,605 

18,806 

5,244,206 

33,873 

13,109 
!6,135,617 



782 



APPENDIX. 



NO. VIII. — BOOKS AND PERIODICALS PUBLISHED IN INDIA 

DURING THE YEAR 1886. 

[These tables are derived from selections from the Records of the Government of India, 

Home Department, No. ccxxxiii, Calcutta, 1887.] 

1. BOMBAY. 



Subject. 


Original Works. 


Republi- 
cations. 


Trans- 
lations. 


Total. 


Arts 


First 
Edition. 


New 
Edition. 


2 

6 

6 

15 

19 

10 

31 

220 

1 

31 

69 

1 
1 


10 

2 
6 

24 
2 

38 
6 

29 

99 
9 
3 

17 

16 
3 
1 

1 


61 

9 

84 

65 

43 

175 

24 

55 

686 

336 

7 

74 

96 

60 

26 

3 


46 

6 

56 

26 

14 

57 

4 

24 

523 

91 

3 

23 

10. 
28 
12 

2 


3 

1 

16 

9 

12 

61 

4 

2 

33 

16 

3 

1 

28 
12 


Biographv 


Drama 


Fiction 


History 






Medicine 


Miscellaneous 


Poetry 


Politics 


Philosophy (including Mental and Moral ) 
Science) J 
Religion 


Science (Natural and other) 


Science (Mathematical and Mechanical) 

Voyages and Travels 


Total 


925 


201 


412 


266 


1804 



2. BENGAL (Books only). 



Subject. 


Books published 

in English and 

other European 

Languages. 


Books published 
in the Vernacu- 
lar Languages 
spoken in the 
Province. 


Books published 
in the Indian 

Classical 
Languages. 


Books pub- 
lished in 
more than 

one 
Language. 




5 

5 

4 

3 

24 

74 

36 

6 

70 

5 

22 

3 

33 

15 

5 


56 
11 
97 

109 
92 

294 
52 
94 

322 
9 

164 
1 

331 

59 

36 

3 


1 

o — 

11 

5 


Biography 

Drama 


Fiction 


History (includ. Geography) . 
Language 


4 

36 
2 

. 22 

28 

9 

13 

57 


121 

2 

9 

37 

14 

2 

4 

148 

1 


Law 


Medicine 


Miscellaneous 


Philosophy 


Poetry 


Politics 


Religion 


Science (Mathematical) 

Science (Natural and other) . 
Travels and Voyages 


310 


1730 


193 338 


Total 2571 



APPENDIX. 

The distribution, according to language, is as follows : 

Uni-linguals 1960 

Bi-linguals 331 

Periodicals 280 

Total 2571 



783 



This vast number of publications in the one Province of Bengal was issued 
in twelve languages : Arabic, Asamese, English, Hindi, Mussalmani, Bengali. 
Nepalese, Persian, Sanskrit, Sontali, Urdu, and Uriya. The number of 
separate books in English was 310, and the number of copies distributed 
370,127. The number of books in other languages was 2261, and the number 
of copies distributed was 4,486,573. During 1886 there were published in 
Bengal 66 magazines and periodicals, 11 of which were in English, and 55 in 
other languages. 

3. MADRAS (Books only). 



Description op 
Works. 


Books published 

in English and 

other European 

Languages. 


Books published 
in the Vernacu- 
lar Languages 
spoken in the 
Province. 


Books published 
in the Indian 

Classical 
Languages. 


Books pub- 
lished in 
more than 

one 
Language. 


Total. 


Original Works.. . 

Translations 

Republications . . . 

Total 


141 
14 
29 


241 

76 

301 


24 
41 


49 

2 

12 


455 

92 

383 


184 


618 


65 


63 


930 



4. PANJAB. 



Subject. 


Original Works. 


Republi- 
cations. 


Trans- 
lations. 


Total. 


Art 


First 
Edition. 


New 
Edition. 


3 

40 

9 

3 

118 

5 

15 

43 

431 

2 

242 

21 

3 


2 

7 
80 

4 
16 

1 

1 

16 

8 
2 
1 


3 

9 

49 

17 

26 

215 

113 

108 

184 

524 

4 

530 

64 

9 

2 


2 

6 

9 

5 

18 

56 

28 

89 

106 

89 

1 

271 

27 

4 

1 


1 

1 

5 

34 

19 
4 

1 

8 


Biography 




Fiction 










Miscellaneous 




Philosophy (including Mental and Moral [ 
Science) ) 


Science (Mathematical and Mechanical) 




Total 


712 


73 


935 


138 


1857 



784 APPENDIX. 

5. NORTHWEST PROVINCES AND OUDH. 
Fifteen hundred works of all classes were published during the year 1866. 
This was an increase of about sixteen per cent, on the number of publications 
in 1885, and of nearly one hundred per cent, on the number issued in 1884. 
More books were written in Urdu than in any other language. Hindi works 
were the next most numerous. After this come the English, which increased 
twenty-five per cent, over the issues of 1885. Among the more notable publi- 
cations is the translation in Urdu of an American lecture on Electrical Phys- 
iology. 

6. CENTRAL PROVINCES. 
Here one work only, a volume of poetry, was published. 

7. BURMA. 

Here 141 publications were registered during the year 1886. Of these 20 
were in European languages, 111 vernacular, and 10 biglot. Under the head 
of Drama there were 23 works ; History, 5 ; Language, 21 ; Law, 1 ; Miscella- 
neous, 23; Poetry, 19 ; Religion, 48 ; and Science, 1. 

8. ASSAM. 
In this province 11 books were published. 

9. MYSORE. 
Here 117 works were published, of which 64 were in the Kannada vernacular. 

10. BANGALORE. 
The total number published was 12. 

11. H AID ARAB AD. 
Here were 17 works issued, 16 of winch were in the Marhatti language and 
1 in the Marwari. One was on history, one on language, and the remainder 
miscellaneous. 



INDEX. 



Abdulla. Kntab Shah, Sultan, the tomb 
of, 200. 

Aborigines, the, differences between the 
^Hindus and, 124. 

Adam's Bridge, 244. 

Adam's Peak, 244. 

Adi Brahmo Soiuaj, the, 477-480. 

Afghan, the, or Mohammedan dynas- 
ties, 47-50. 

Agonies of English style, 356-366. 

Agra, capital of the Afghan govern- 
ment, 50. 

Agra and the Taj Mahal, 622-634. 

Agriculture, the great need for, 553- 
555. 

Ahmadabad, 728-736. 

Ajmir, a day in, 721-727. 

Akbar, religious and literary tastes of, 
54, 497 ; tomb of, 634 ; and the fakir 
Selim, 684 ; aud his city of Fathpur 
Sikri, 684-689. 

Alam Bagh, 602. 

Alain, Shah, tomb of, 731. 

Alexander's campaign in India, 24, 27, 
30, 42-44, 661, 662. 

Alexandra College, the, 141. 

Aligarh, the Mohammedan college at, 
678-683. 

Allahabad, a halt at, 574-578. 

Alps, the, compared with the Himalayas, 
82. 

Alumni, what becomes of the college? 
386. 

Amber, the old Eajput capital, 713, 714, 
717-720. 

Amritsar, the Golden Temple of, 670- 
677. 

Anar Kali, tomb of, at Lahor, 667. 

Anglo -Indian, the, attachment of, to 
India, 14. 

Anglo-Saxon, the, in India, 31-34; 
close kinship of, to the Hindu, 

50 



33, 38; contrasted with the Latin, 
708. 

Animals, wild, lives destroyed by, 94 ; 
in Mysore, 303. 

Apk£ Shara^b — Your Honor's Fire- 
water, 516-536. 

"Apostolic Durbar," the, 485. 

Arabi Pasha, a visit to, 258, 259. 

Arabian Sea, on the, 8, 9. 

Armor, buying specimens of, at Haidar- 
abad, 201, 202. 

Army, the, 108-111. 

Arrian, writings of. concerning India, 
23, 24. 

Artists at work in house decoration, 
339, 340. 

Arya Somaj, the, 489-494. 

Aryan languages, the, 344, 345, 350, 351. 

Aryans, the ancient and modern, 33, 34; 
conquest of Indiaby, 36-40 ; relations 
of, to the Sanskrit language, 350. 

Ascent, the, to the temple of Trichinop- 
oli, 290-293. 

Asoka, king of Behar, propagates Bud- 
dhism, 41, 42, 416-418 ; the Pillar of, 
577. 

Association, the National, for Supply- 
ing Female Medical Aid to the Wom- 
en of India, 458-462. 

Automata for household amusement, 
189-191. 

Aylmer, Eose Whitworth, attachment 
between, aud Landor, 405-407. 

Babar and his family, 51-53. 
Bactro-Greek kingdom overthrown by 

the Scythians, 45. 
Baggage, careful handling of, 211. 
Bailey, George, a hero of the mutiny, 595. 
Baldwin Schools, the, in Bangalore, 304. 

305. 
Bangalore, 300, 304-308. 



786 



INDEX. 



Banyan Tree, the Great, 341, 342. 
Barrow, Rev. Mr., the home, hospitality, 

and work of, 216, 217 ; at the home 

of, 224-230. 
Bassein — a dead Portuguese city, 739- 

754. 
Bathing in the Ganges, 563-565, 574. 
Bazars, the, of Haidarabad, 186, 201. 
Beadon Square meetings, Calcutta, 388. 
Bed for travelling, 206-209. 
Beilby, Miss, connection of, ■with the 

Countess Dufferin Fund, 454-456. 
Benares, the Holy City, 559-568 ; a ride | 

through, 569-573. 
Benevolence of Parsis, 141-143; of i 

Hindus and Mohammedans, 143. 
Bichauna, the, or travelling outfit, 206- [ 

209, 219. 
Bishop of Ceylon, Church Missionary 

Society and the, 313, 314. 
Black Hole, Fort William and the, 336, 

337. 
Blavatsky, Madame, and Colonel Olcott, 

231-243. 
Bombay, 10-13 ; touches of its history, 

15-22; first scenes in, 31; Parsis in, 

134, 137-152; an excursion from, to 

Elephauta, 153-161; presidency, in- 
crease of education in, 375. 
Book, an odd, 357-362. 
Books, preservation of, from ants and 

climate, 330; circulation of, 610, 611. 
Bose, Ram Chandra, "Brahinanism" of, 

366 ; description of Hindu writers 

by, 616, 617. 
Botanical Gardens, near Calcutta, 340- 

342. 
Brahma, the eighth incarnation of, 210, 

501. 
Brahmanism, 409-413; restoration of, 

in India, 418. 
Brahmans, the, supremacy of, 40, 41, 

410 ; cave-temples of, at Elephauta, 

157-160 ; sacred books of, 409-413. 
Brahmaputra, the, 86. 
Brabmo Somaj, the, 478, 480-486. 
British India, comparative area and 

population of, 83. 
Browning's, Mrs., lines to an island, 

255. 
Buddhism in India, 413-420. 
Buddhist towers at Sarnatb, 571-573. 
Buddhists, the, religious supremacy of, 

41, 42; the cave-temple of, at Karli, 

162-172; in Ceylon, 250; reverence 

of, for the Temple of the Sacred 

Tooth, 268, 269. 



Burdwan, Hindu college at, 377, 378. 
Burma, wars of the English with, 72. 

Caine, Mr., temperance measures of, in 
House of Commons, 525, 530, 531. 

Calcutta, voyage from Madras to, 313- 
320; Lord Dufferin in, 321-325 ; pict- 
ures of, 326-335 ; Fort William and 
the Black Hole of, 336, 337 ; a rajah's 
home at, 338-340 ; the Botanic Gar- 
dens near, 340-342 ; a centre of Hindu 
education, 376, 385 ; college alumni 
at, 385 ; newspapers of, 387 ; the Ar- 
menian school in, 402. 

Canals, 129-131. 

Canning, Lord, 78, 121. 

Cantonment, the, 214. 

Carey, Marshman, and Ward, 434, 463- 
471. 

Carvings at Srirangam, 296 ; Farhpur 
Sikri, 688, 689 ; Gwalior, 705, 706. 

Caste, source of, 41 ; among the Hindus, 
422 j war against, by the Somajes, 
504. 

Catacomb, a great, at Golconda, 196. 

Cave-temples of Elephauta, 153-161; 
the one at Karli, 162-172. 

Cawnpore, Christmas in, 579-584 ; re- 
miuders of the massacre at, 585-591. 

Ceylon, 244-273; the Church of Eng- 
land in, 313, 314 ; statistics of mis- 
sions in, 440 ; acreage of crops in, 
547. 

Chandra Gupta meets Alexauder, 27 ; 
alliance of, with Seleukos, 44. 

Changiz Khan, 48. 

Char Minar, the. of Haidarabad, 186- 
189. 

Cheapness of liquor in price and qual- 
ity, 529, 530. 

Child marriage, 760. 

China, opium forced on, 509-513. 

Chitini, the, 273. 

Chota Nagpur, increase of drunkenness 
at, 534, 535. 

Choti-hazari, the, 227. 

Christian workers in Cawnpore, 579- 
584. 

Christianity, founding, progress, and 
degeneracy of early, in India, 309- 
312; India's debt to, 378, 379; rela- 
tion of, to the English tenure of the 
country, 444 ; opposition to, by edu- 
cated and sceptical natives, 241, 242, 
472-476. 

Christinas in Cawnpore, 579-584. 

Chuuder Sen, Keshub, home of, 331- 



INDEX. 



787 



335 ; work of, 477, 478, 480-487 ; testi- 
mony of, on the increase of intem- 
perance, 526, 527. 

Church, pankhas in, 230. 

, Christian, founding of the, in In- 
dia, 309-312. 

of England, the, 108; in Ceylon, 

313, 314. 

in India, connection of the, with 

the Persian Church, 312. 

, the Roman Catholic, in India, 

445-450. 

, St. Mary's, at Madras, 218, 222. 

Churches, a lesson in the location of, 
319, 320. 

Cinchona-tree, the, of Ceylon, 256, 259. 

City, the typical Indian, 212-214 ; the 
English part of, 214. 

Clive, Robert, defeats Marhattas and 
delivers Bombay, 18; wins Bengal at 
Plassey, 19, 222; wins Northern In- 
dia, 70 ; policy of, 113, 114, 221 ; con- 
test of, with Dnpleix, 220, 221 ; at 
Trichinopoli, 287, 288; effect of the 
Black Hole outrage upon, 336, 337. 

Coal measures, comparative area of, 103. 

Coals to an Indian Newcastle, 231-243. 

College, after the, what? 385-389; the, 
at Serampore, 466 ; the Mohamme- 
dan, at Aligarh, 678-683. 

Colleges in India, 380-386. 

Colombo by the Sea, 244-254; road 
from, to Kandy, 255-263 ; contrasted 
"with Kandy, 264. 

Columbus, purpose and belief of, 64. 

Congress, a National, for India,, 763. 

Conolly's, Arthur, prayer-hook, the ro- 
mance of, 662, 663. 

Cottons, production and manufacture 
of, 97. 

Council, the Supreme, 106; the Supreme 
Legislative, 106, 107. 

Crime in India, decrease of, 757-760. 

Croley, Henry, courtesy and influence 
of, 183, 195. 

Crows, the, of Madras, 225, 226. 

Cultivated land in Iudia, 546, 547. 

Dacca, the muslins of, 542. 

Dacoity, 758. 

Danes, the missions of the, 66, 432-434. 

Dasyus, the, 36, 40. 

Dayanand Sarasvati, 490, 495, 499-501. 

Dead, the Parsis' method of disposing 

of the, 148-151. 
Debendra Nath Tagore, 477, 479, 480, 

482. 



Delhi, 49, 50 ; the great mosque and the 
palace of, 57 ; successive cities of, 
.213, 214; astrouomical observatory 
at, 367 ; the Mogul metropolis, 635t- 
641; the elder, 642-651 ; in the mu- 
tiny, 655-657. 

Dialects of India, the, 343-346. 

Dinner in India, order and rules of, 
228-230. 

Dionysius, description of India by, 24, 
25. 

Disestablishment Society in Calcutta, 
the, 316. 

Distillation, early, 516, 517; of Indian 
liquors, 519-521. 

Diwan i Amm, the, at Delhi, 636, 637. 

Dog, prominence of the, in Zoroastrian- 
ism, 146, 147. 

Doves, sacred, in Madura, 280, 281. 

Dravidiau tribes, the, 36, 40; languages, 
345. 

Duff, Alexander, educational policy of, 
374 ; triumph of, 385 ; work of, 436. 

Dufferiu, Countess, 80, 322; Fund for 
Female Medical Aid, 454-462. 

Dufferin, Lord, 80, 106; in Calcutta, 
321-325. 

Dnpleix and Bourdonnais, 67, 68. 

Dutch, the, follow and expel the Portu- 
guese, 66 ; in Ceylou, 246, 249, 266. 

East India Company, the, 16-18 ; great 
growth of, 69; extinction of, 76; 
rules of, 105; purchase of Madras by, 
217 ; development of, 367, 368 ; skill 
of, in the selection of men, 391 ; and 
the opium traffic, 506-511. 

Eastwick, description of a Parsi bier 
by, 148. 

Education, 108, 367-389; at Madura 
University for girls and boys, 278; 
too secular, 476. 

Elephanta, a sail to the cave-temples 
of, 153-161. 

Elephants, 92; ride on, 183-192, 713, 
714 ; sacred, in Madura, 281 ; at 
Srirangam, 297. 

England's rule of Iudia, 32, 755-766. 

English, the, in Iudia, 69-80, 293, 307, 
368; wars of, with the Marhattas, 
63 ; assisted iu war by the natives, 
113-121 ; vices of, carried to the In- 
dians, 126 ; assisted by the Parsis, 
136 ; memorials of, in Puna, 174 ; por- 
tion of cities used by, for homes, 
214, 217 ; in Ceylon, 246, 249, 266 ; in 
Southern India, 287-289 ; language, 



788 



INDEX. 



words of, introduced into Indian dia- 
lects, 353 ; style, the agonies of, 356- 
366; writers'in India, 390-408; re- 
. Tenge at Cawnpore, 588; preserva- 
tion of ruins by, 708. 

Europe, organized by the Aryan race, 
38, 39. 

European railroads, extension of, to In- 
dia, 128, 129. 

Europeans in India, 23-30, 64-80 ; rela- 
tions of the Parsis with, 136, 137. 

Evangelization of the educated natives, 
387-389. 

False faiths, the downward trend of, 

162 ; unwise concessions to, by the 

government, 371, 372. 
Famine produced by opium culture, 

513, 514. 
Famines of India, 537-539. 
Fathpur Sikri, the ruins of, 684-689. 
Feudal States, the, 113-121. 
"Filtration" scheme, the, 374. 
Finance, educational, a good example 

of, 682, 683. 
Fishery, the pearl, 273, 274. 
Flowers, culture of, 212, 226, 268. 
Forests, spoliation of, 97 ; in Mysore, 

303. 
Fort, the old, at Puna, 174 ; of Gol- 

conda, 192-199 ; at Madras, 220, 222 ; 

at Bangalore, 308 ; William and the 

Black Hole, at Calcutta, 336, 337. 
Fortress, combination of, and temple, 
' 286. ■ 
Fowler's, Bishop, description of the 

Singhalese palm, 101-103. 
Francis, Sir Philip, career of, 391-394. 
Franciscan Church, the, at Bassein, 746, 

747. 
French, the, 63, 67-69 ; contest with, by 

the English, 68, 69, 220-222, 287-289; 

tribute to English rule, a, 766. 

Gama, Vasco da, discovers sea-route to 

India, 65, 309. 
I Ganges, the, 86-90; growths in the 

valley of, 97; canal, 130; the Delta 

of, 318 ; morning scene along, 563- 

565; drifting with, 566-568; the 

charm of, 584. . 
Garden, a beautiful, 191 ; at Bangalore, 

306 ; at the Taj Mahal, 627, 628, 631. 
Gardens, the Botanical, near Calcutta, 

340-342 ; of Begum Samru, 684, 685. 
Gautama Buddha, 413-416. 
Ghats, the Western, 85. 



Golconda, 183 ; the fort and tombs of, 
192-202. 

Gordon, the Bible of General, 2, 3. 

Government of India, 105-112; the, 
and education, 108, 373, 476 ; encour- 
ages the building of railroads, 127 ; 
builds canals for commerce and for 
irrigation, 129-131 ; owns telegraph, 
131, 132; House, the, at Calcutta, 326; 
support of idol worship, 371, 372 ; of 
the universities, 384 ; support of the 
opium traffic, 505-515 ; and the liquor 
traffic, 521-526. 

Governors-General, two classes of, 321; 

• palace of, 326-329. 

Graeco-Bactrian kings invade India, 44. 

Grand, Madame, 394, 395. 

Granth, the, the sacred book of the 
Sikhs, 672, 675. 

Greece, early, as related to India, 23 ; 
parallelism between the philosophy 
of, and of India, 28 ; mythology of, 
and of India, 42. 

Greek records of India, 23, 24, 43 ; su- 
premacy in India, 42-44; coins found 
in India, 44. 

Greeks, influence of, on art and science 
of India, 44 ; assistance of, in the 
sculpturesofthecave-temples,159,160. 

Gurus, the, of the Sikhs, 425-427. 

Gwalior, the palaces of, 690-700; the 
temples of, 701-709. 

Gypsies, the, 126. 

Haidar Ali, 300. 

Haidarabad, the Nizam's, 178-182; an 
elephant ride in aud about, 183-191 ; 
historical connection of, with Gol- 
conda, 198. 

Hall, the, of One Thousand Columns, at 
Madura, 280 ; at Srirangam, 296 ; of 
Tirumal Nayak, 284 ; of Private Au- 
dience at Delhi, 637-640. 

Harbor of Colombo, 245, 246. 

Hardy's, Spence, "Eastern Mona- 
chism," 250, 270. 

Hastings, Warren, 63; literary ability 
of, 391, 392; quarrel of, with Sir. 
Philip Francis, 391, 393, 394; con- 
nection of, with the opium traffic, 
508, 509, 511. 

Havelock, Henry, character and death 
of, 75-77 ; arrival of, at Lucknow, 
599 ; tomb and military career of, 
603, 604. 

Heber, Bishop, opinion of, concerning 
the apostle Thomas in India, 310. 



INDEX. 



789 



Hichy's Gazette, 398. 

Hill of Trichiuopoli, 287-293 ; Gwalior, 
690, 694. 

Hill Tribes, the, the religion of, 428- 
431. 

Himalaya Mountains, the, 81, 82. 

Hindi Catalogue, Kishore's, 608-610. 

Hinduism, 420-422 ; reformatory move- 
ments of, 477-504. 

Hindus, the, the arts and sciences of, 
29, 30; supremacy of, 45-47; con- 
quered hut not converted by the 
Moguls, 58 : differences between, and 
the wild tribes, 124 ; hostility of, and 
the Mohammedans in Haidarabad, 
180 ; tombs of wealthy, 199 ; crowds 
of, on trains, 210; opposition of, to 
thorough education, 368 ; the higher 
schools of, 376-379; Benares, the holy 
city of, 559-563 ; writers of, dreamy, 
616, 617 ; in a Mohammedan college, 
681. 

Hindustani, the, 344. 

Hodgson's, Mr. Richard, investigation 
of Theosophy, 239, 240. 

Hoi well, J. Z., studies and writings of, 
on India, 396, 397. 

Hotels of India, 214, 215. 

Humors of the Indian languages, 353- 
355 

" Hut of Two Days and a Half," 722- 
727. 

Idolatry, debasing, at Madura, 282-284. 

Iudia, first view of the coast of, 10 ; 
Europeans in, 23-30, 64-80; mani- 
fold ownership of, 31, 32; extent of, 
32, 83 ; in history, 32, 35-80 ; original 
inhabitants of, 35-37 ; the great in- 
vasions of, 37, 38 ; natural divisions 
of, 81-91 ; mountain systems of, 84, 
85; summer resorts of, 85; rivers of, 
85-90; lakes and tanks of, 90, 91; 
animal and vegetable life of, 92-103; 
minerals of, 103, 104, 764, 765 ; gov- 
ernment of, 105-112; the feudal states 
of, 113-121 ; the wild tribes of, 122- 
126 ; railroads, canals, telegraphs, 
and postal system of, 127-133; the 
Parsis of, 134-152 ; ways of travel in, 
203-215; Syrian Christians in, 309- 
312; languages of, 343-346; battle 
of the English with the languages 
of, 347-352 ; humors of the languages 
of, 353-355 ; the universities of, 380- 
384; English writers in, 390-408; re- 
ligious of, 409-431 ; the cradle of mis- 



sions in North, 463-465 ; the sceptical 
invasion of, 472-476; the Somajes of, 
477-504 ; the opium curse of, 505-515 ; 
people of, temperate, 517-519; fam- 
ines of, 537-539; the industries of, 
540 - 547 ; the poverty of, 548 - 556 ; 
current literature of, 612-618 ; Chris- 
tian literature in, 619-621 ; the path 
of conquest to, 658-662; what has 
England done for? 755-766. 

Iudo- American romance, an, 451-453. 

Indrapat, 650. 

Indus, the, 90. 

Industries, the Indian, 540-547; im- 
provements in, 764. 

Infanticide, 566, 759, 760. 

Insects, prevalence of and precautious 
against, 224, 225. 

Intemperance, iucrease of, 524-530; 
movements to arrest, 530-533; re- 
sults of, 533-536. 

Investments of the natives increasing, 

. 556. 

Irawadi, the, 85, 86. 

Iron Pillar, the, 650. 

Irrigation, 129-131 ; in Ceylon, 260. 

Jahan Numa, the, 189-191. 

Jahan, Shah, and the tomb of his wife, 

625-632. 
Jahangir, a patron of literature, art, 

aud science, 54. 
Jai Singh, observatory of, 643. 
Jain worship, Gwalior an illustration 

of, 690-709 ; pontiffs, figures of, 707. 
Jainism, 422-424, 693. 
Jaipur, a Rajput capital, 710-720. 
Jama Masjid, of Delhi, 652-655; of 

Ahmadabad, 732. 
" James aud Mary" shoals, the, 316, 317. 
Jewels, concealed, 531, 552 ; the passion 

for, 555. 
Judson and Newell, 435, 436. 

Kabir, 496. 

Kachhwaha clan of Rajputs, the, 717, 
718. 

Kanarese language, the, 345. 

Kandy, the enchanted road to, 255-263 ; 
and its wonders, 264-272. 

Karli, the cave-temple of, 162-172; the 
railway station at, 212. 

Kasi the Magnificent, 560. 

Keshnb Chunder Sen, a visit to the 
home of, 331-335 ; work of, 477, 478, 
480-487; testimony of, on the in- 
crease of intemperance, 526, 527. 



190 



INDEX. 



Kbandala, 166. 

Khonds, the, 122, 125, 428-430. 

Kipling, Eudyarrl, 407, 408. 

Kishore, Newal, publishing house of, 

604-611. 
Kob-i-nur, the, 428, 639. 
Kolasian tribes, 35, 123 ; languages, 345. 
Kuen-lun Mountains, the, 82. 
Kuli, Mohammed, tbe tomb of, 200. 
Kut Humi, 236. 
Kutab al Islam, 648-650. 
Kutab Minar, 644-647 ; the view from, 

647, 648. 

Labor, four cities of, 214 ; the Panjab 

capital, 664, 669. 
Lake Region of England, the, Kandy a 

reminder of, 264. 
Land, cultivated, in India, 546, 547. 
Landor, Walter Savage, attachment and 

lines of, to Rose Aylmer, 405-407. 
Languages of India, the, 343-346 ; the 

battle of the English with, 347-352 ; 

humors of, 353-355. 
Letters from natives, in English, 363- 

365 ; of Warren Hastings to his wife, 

391. 
Library of Bishop Wilson, 329, 330; 

Bombay Asiatic Society, 330; at 

Kandy, 269, 270 ; at Serainpore, 

treasures of the, 467. 
Lily Cottage, 331-335. 
Liquor traffic, the government and 

the, 521-530. 
Liquors, the distillation of Indian, 519- 

521. 
Literary Club at Aligarh, the, 683. 
Literature, the current, of India, 612- 

618 ; Christian, in India, 619, 621. 
Lithographing in Lucknow, 606. 
London, the Arya Somaj in, 493, 494. 
Lucknow — the heart of the mutiny, 592- 

596 ; memorials of the tnuti uy at, 597- 

603. 

Macanlay, T. B., the uncle of, in Mysore, 
303, 402; educational plan of, 372, 
373; picture of Warren Hastings by, 
392; connection of, with India, 401. 

Madras, irrigation in, 130; past and 
present, 216-223; university of, en- 
trance examination of, 305; voyage 
from, to Calcutta, 313-320. 

Madras Christian College Magazine, the 
exposure of Theosophy bv the, 234, 
238, 239. 

Madrasi home, my, 224-230. 



Madura, cholera at, 275, 276; and its 
temple, 276-285. 

Mahabbarata, the, 41, 351. 

Maharaja, the palace of the, at Banga- 
lore, 306, 307; at Jaipur. 710, 713, 
718. 

Maharaui, the, of Punna and Miss Beil- 
by, 454-457. 

Malayalam language, the, 345. 

Man Palace, the, or Chit Mandir, 697, 
698. 

Manuscripts, the, of the Buddhist Li- 
brary, Kandy, 270. 

Marbles, 104. 

Marhattas, the, 58-63 ; seek to capture 
Bombay, 18; capital city of, Puna, 
173-177; at Trichiuopoli* 288, 289. 

Marriage reform by the Brahmo Somaj, 
481 ; by the Arya Somaj, 492 ; cere- 
mony, expense attending, 555, 759. 

Martyn, Henry, 435. 

Massacre, scene of the Cawnpore, 590, 
591. 

Mather, Cotton, correspondence of, with 
Ziegenbalg, 451-453. 

Meals, time and courses of, in India, 
227-230. 

Medical system, 112; aid, Countess 
Dufferin Fund for female, 454-462. 

Megasthenes, division of Indian castes 
by, 28. 

Memorial of the mutiny, near Delhi, 
657. 

Military authorship of Anglo-Indiaus. 
400. 

Minaret, view from a, in Benares, 568. 

Mineral wealth of India, 103, 104, 764, 
765. 

Missionaries not disturbed by Theoso- 
phy, 243; philological labors of, 346, 
352 ; influence of, upon popular edu- 
cation, 373, 374; of the Roman Cath- 
olic Church, 449, 450; relation of the 
National Association to, in medical 
work, 460, 461 ; a compliment to, 
from an enemy, 474. 

Missionary societies, aid of, in medical 
care, 112 ; Conference, Bombay, 1871, 
protest of, against government sup- 
port of idolatry, 371, 372; schools, 
government patronage of, 384 ; statis- 
tics of, 436-440 ; labor, dearth of, 440- 
442. 

Missions, Protestant, in India. 432-444 ; 
the cradle of, in North India, 463-465. 

Mogul Empire, tbe, 47; Delhi, the me- 
tropolis of, 635-641; emperors, 50- 



INDEX. 



791 



58; patrons of art and literature, 54, 
369 ; no popular educational effect 
from, 57, 58, 369, 370; conquest of 
the South by, 180, 181, 198, 199; 
chauge of residence of, 622 ; use 
made of the Portuguese by, 743. 

Mohammedanism, 425. 

Mohammedans in India, four classes of, 
48; conquered by the Marhattas, 61 ; 
hated by the Hindus, 180, 181 ; oppo- 
sition of, to thorough education, 368 ; 
yielding to intemperance, 527 ; yield- 
ing to liberal ideas, 619; tbe college 
of, at Aligarb, 678-683; contrasted 
with tbe Hindus, 731. 

Monkey temple in Benares, 570, 571. 

Monotheism of tbe Parsis, 144 ; orig- 
inal, of the Hindus, 496. 

Mookerjee, Onocool Cbunder, Memoir 
of, 357-362. 

Moouligb t view of theTaj Mahal ,631, 632. 

Moorshedabad, district of, fewness of 
missions in, 441. 

Mosque, the Great, at Delhi, 652-655; 
at Ajmir, 722-727. 

Mountains of Ceylon, the, 244, 245. 

Mozumdar, Chandar, 484, 485. 

Miiller, Max, letter from Cbunder Sen 
to, on the death of bis mother, 332. 

Muir, Dr., conclusion of, on the original 
languages of India, 348-350. 

Museum, the, of Colombo, 250; Banga- 
lore, 307, 308 ; Labor, 668, 669. 

Mutiny, tbe, 73-78; reminders of, 575- 
577 ; Lucknow — the heart of, 592- 
596; memorials of, 597-603; Delhi 
in, 655-657. 

Mysore, a run into, 300-308. 

Nana Sahib, leader of tbe mutiny, 75; 
revenge of, 585 ; trick of, 586, 587 ; 
capture of the treasures of, 588-590. 

Napoleon, story of Princess Talleyrand 
by, 395. 

Narbada, tbe, 90. 

Native rulers, loyal, power of, 113-121 ; 
English respect for, 338 ; prejudice, 
concessions to, in education, 370; 
publishing-house, a, 604-611. 

Natives, educated, number and influ- 
ence of, 386, 387 ; attitude of, tow- 
ards their ancestral faith, 387; ef- 
forts of missionaries for, 387-389; 
sentiment and action of, for tem- 
perance, 531, 532. 

New Dispensation, the, 480-486. 

Nicholson, John, death of, at Delhi, 656. 



Night-travel, difficulties of, 206; ram- 
ble at Kandy, 268. 

Nile, the Ganges compared with the, 86. 

Nizam, tbe, 117, 118 ; tbe capital citv 
of, Hairlarabad, 178-182. 

Non-Aryan, the, tribes, 35-37, 125, 126; 
languages, 350, 351. 

" Oil festival " at Madura, 231, 282. 

Olcott, Colonel, and Madame Blavatsky, 
231-243. 

Old, the, and the new, iu India, in con- 
trast, 160 ; seen in Puna, 173 ; from, 
to tbe new, 379 ; in Abniadabad, 728. 

Onocool Cbunder Mookerjee, Memoir 
of, 357-362. 

Opium curse of India, tbe, 505-515. 

Out-still system, tbe, 523-526. 

Pagoda, the, of Madura, 276-285. 

Pal Suhan, 679. 

Palaces of Gwalior, the, 690-700. 

Pali language, the, 348. 

Palm, varieties and uses of tbe, 98-103, 
256. 

Palmer, Professor, the death of, 5. 

Palms of Ceylon, the, 256. 

Panjab, tbe, the settlement of, by the 
Aryans, 39 ; secured to England, 73, 
428; University, 383, 384 ; a tour into, 
658-683 ; capital— Labor, 664-669. 

Panklia, the, 230. 

Parsis, the, 134-152. 

Parvati, excursion to, from Puna, 174- 
177. 

Passion Play, the, at Goa and Bassein, 
750-752. 

Peacock throne, the, 638, 639. 

Pearl fishery, the, 273, 274. 

Pearl Mosque, the, 57, 633, 634, 640, 641. 

Permit, a royal, 183, 184. 

Persian empire, the, founded by Aryans, 
38 ; Church, connection of the apostle 
Thomas with the, 310, 311. 

Pilgrims to the Madura temple, 283 ; 
Srirangam temple, 298, 299. 

Plassey, the battle of, 70, 111. 

Plea for high marks, a, 363. 

Pleader, a remarkable, 359, 360. 

Police, the, 111, 112. 

Polo, Marco, 64, 310. 

Pool of Immortality, the, 672. 

Popular education, the first step tow- 
ards, 373 ; two plans of, 374. 

Poppy, culture of the, 505-509, 513, 514. 

Porcelain tiling, wonderful coloring on, 
200. 



792 



INDEX. 



Portuguese, the, in India, 15, 16, C4-66, 

309; in Ceylon, 246, 249, 266; city, 

Bassein — a dead, 739-754. 
Postal system, the, 132, 133. 
Poverty of India, 548-556. 
Prayer of the Parsis, 145, 146. 
Pre-Aryan races, specimens of, in the 

Vindhya plateau, 84. 
Prince of Wales, effect of the tour of, 

540, 541. 
Protestant missions, first, by Danes, 

309 ; in India, 432-444. 
Psychical Research, the Society for, in 

Loudon, investigation of Theosophy 

by, 239-241. 
Publishing-house, a native, 604-611. 
Puna, the Marhatta capital, 173-177. 

Quadrangles, the seven, at Srirangam, 

297. 
Queen's College, Benares, 571. 
Queen's Proclamation, the, 78. 
Queen Victoria, efforts of, in aid of the 

Countess Dutferiu Fund, 454-457. 

Railroads, 127-129, 209, 210. 

Railway travel, 203-214. 

Rajah, home of a, in Calcutta, 338- 
340. 

Rajib Ali, Padre, 670. 

Rajput capital, a — Jaipur, 710-720. 

Rajputs, the, 714-718, 721, 722. 

Ramayana, the, 41, 351. 

Rammohun Roy, 477-479. 

Rani Sipri Mosque, 731, 732. 

Reading as a preventive of sea-sick- 
ness, 8. 

Red Sea, on the, 5, 6. 

Regulating Act, the, 70. 

Religions of India, the, 409-431. 

Religions significance of the reform- 
atory movements, 495-504. 

Residency at Lucknow, the, 597-599. 

Resident, the English, 118-121. 

" Rest houses," 214, 215. - 

Rice in Ceylon, 259-261. 

Rig Veda, the, 40. 

Ripon, Lord, plans of, for reform, 78- 
80 ; popularity of, 321, 322. 

Roads, the wonderful, up Gwalior, 706, 
707. 

Rocks, near Haidarabad, 179, 180. 

Roe, Sir Thomas, 390. 

Roman Catholic Church, the, in India, 
445-450. 

Roman characters, increasing use of, in 
literature, 351, 352. 



Ruins of Fathpur Sikri, the, 684-689; 
Bassein, 739-754. 

Sacred Tooth of Buddha, temple of the, 
266, 268, 270-272. 

Sadharan Brahmo Somaj, the, 486-489. 

Sahyadri Mountains, the, 85. 

Saint Joseph's Cathedral at Bassein, 
745, 746. 

Salar Jang, Sir, the elder, 117, 118 ; the 
younger, 178, 179 ; a pass from, 184. 

Sanitarium for the poor Parsis, 142. 

Sauitary condition of India improving, 
761-763. 

Sanskrit, the origin of, 39, 348 ; table 
of words from, compared with Zend, 
Greek, Latin, and English, 347 ; lit- 
erature of, 351. 

Saruath, old, 571-573. 

Sasbahu and Sahasra-bahu, 702-706. 

Sati, 758, 759. 

Satpura Mountains, the, 84, 85. 

Say ad Ahmad Bahadur, 678, 679, 683. 

Sceptical invasion of India, the, 472- 
476. 

Schools, the higher Hindu, 376-379. 

Schwarz, 434. 

Screen of Altamsh, the, at Ajmir, 726, 
727. 

Scythian invasion, the, 45. 

Secretary of State for India and the 
Council, 106. 

Sepoy mutiny, the, 73-78 ; change of 
government, a result of, 106. 

Serampore, 66, 463-471. 

Shahji, founder of the Marhattas, 61. 

Shalamar Gardens, the, 667. 

Sidi S'aid's mosque at Ahmadabad, 
732. 

Sikaudarabad, English camp at, 118- 
121. 

Sikandra Bagh in Lucknow, 601. 

Sikhs, the, 425-428 ; loyalty of, at Alla- 
habad, 576 ; and their temple at Am- 
ritsar, 670-677. 

Silt deposit of the Ganges, 86-90. 

Simla, the summer home of the viceroy, 
85. 

Singhalese palms, the, 101-103, 256; 

• coast, pearls on the, 274. 

Sinnett, A. P., a disciple of Theosophy, 
232. 

Siva, figures of, at Madura, 279, 283. 

Sivaji, the Marhatta warrior, 61, 62. 

Sivanath Sastri, statement of the mis- 
sion of the Sadharan Somaj by, 487. 

Sleeping accommodations, 209, 214, 215. 



INDEX. 



793 



Somajes of India, the, 477-494 ; the re- 
lation of, to Christianity, 498, 501- 
504. 

"JSpicy breezes," a fact, 246. 

Srirangam temple, the, 294-299. 

Stones, precious, 103, 104, 272, 295; in 
the Taj Mahal, 629, 630, 632. 

Style, the agonies of English, 356-366. 

Sudder still system, 522. 

Sndras, the, 41. 

Suez, at, 3, 4 ; Gulf of, heat and scenery 
of, 5. 

Sultan, relation of, to Arabi Pasha, 254. 

Sunset at Gwalior, 709. 

Surat, French settlement at, 67 ; Parsis 
at, 137. 

Sutlej, the, on board, 4-14 ; Parsis on, 
134, 145. 

Sympathy, a letter of, 363, 364. 

Syrian Christians in India, the, 309- 
312. 

Taj Mahal, the, 57, 553 ; Agra and, 622- 
634. 

Talleyrand, marriage of, with Madame 
Grand, 394, 395. 

Tamil language, the, 345; "Minor 
Poets," 370; publications in, 620. 

Tanks, great, 91. 

Taragarh, Fort, at Ajmir, 721, 722. 

Taylor, William, anecdote of, 210. 

Tea-drying at Bangalore, 306. 

Tea-gardens of Ceylon, 259. 

Tea-industry, injury to, by the liquor 
curse, 528. 

Teak, production and use of, 98. 

Telegraph system, the, 131, 132. 

Teli Maudir, 701, 702. 

Telugu language, the, 345. 

Temperance societies for India, 531, 532. 

Temple -fortress, the, of Trichinopoli, 
286-293; the Golden, of Amritsar, 
670-677. 

Temples at Parvati, 174-177 ; of Gwa- 
lior, 701-709. 

Thackeray, William Makepeace, con- 
nection of, with India, 402-404. 

Thags, the, 758. 

"Theistic Hymns" of the Arya Somaj, 
493,494. 

Theistic reform movements, 477-504. 

Theosophical Society, the founding and 
rules of the, 231. 

Theosojihist, The, 232. 

Theosophy, the vagary of, 233-242. 

Thomas, the apostle, tradition of, 309- 
312. 



Thousand Arms, the temple of a, 702- 
706. 

Tibeto-Burmau tribes, 35. 

Tiffin, 228, 354. 

Tigers, 92. 

" Tipu's Lookout," 180. 

Tirumal Nayak, 279, 284, 285. 

Tombs of the kings at Golconda, 199- 
201. 

Tooth of Buddha, the Sacred, temple 
of, 266, 268-272. 

Towers of Silence, the, 148. 

Trade, formal opening of, between Eng- 
land and India, 390, 391. 

Tranquebar, 66. 

Travel, methods of, improving, 128, 761 ; 
ways of Indian, 203-215. 

Tribes, native wild, grouped, 123. 

Trichinopoli, the temple - fortress of, 
286-293. 

Trust as a college endowment, 469. 

Tntikorin, 273-276. 

Unification of India, the, by English 

rule, 755-757. 
Universities, degrees given by the, 374 ; 

the, of India, 380-384. 
University, the, of Madura, 277-279; 

of Aligarh. 376 ; the Calcutta, 377, 

383. 385 ; the Panjab, 383, 384. 
Urdu, the, 344. 

Vedas, the, earlier and later, 40 ; Hindu 

respect for, 502. 
Vegetation, the wonderful, at Golconda, 

196, 197, 201 ; of Ceylon, 255-262 ; at 

Basseiu, 748-750. 
Vepery, the English part of Madras, 

217.' 
Viceroy, the, or Governor-General, 106. 
Vindhya^ Mountains, the, 84. 
Vines, the wonderful, of Ceylon, 262. 
Vishnu, temple of, at Srirangam, 294- 

299. 
Vultures, the, of Bombay, 149-151. 

Walk, a, through old Serampore, 466- 

471. 
Wall of Akbar, the, at Fathpur Sikri. 

685, 686. 
War, the opium, 512, 513. 
Wars, the constant, in India, 172, 755- 

757. 
Weaving, the art of, 542-546. 
Well of Knowledge, the, 569, 570, 762. 
Wellington, Lord, services of, in India, 

19. 



794 



INDEX. 



Wesleyans, the, in Ceylon, 250 ; in My- 
sore, 304. 

Wheeler, General, at the tornb of, 591. 

William, Fort, and the Black Hole, 336, 
337. 

Williams, Monier, on the Parsi method 
of disposing of their dead, 150, 151 ; 
description of the "oil festival" at 
the Madura temple by, 281, 282 ; de- 
scription of Hinduism by, 421, 422. 

Wilson, Bishop, library of, 329, 330. 

Windows, the five wonderful, of the 
Mosque of Sidi S'aid, 732-735; of 
pearl oyster-shells, 744. 

Woman's place in Indian letters, 618. 



Women of India, medical help for the, 
454-462. 

Xavier, Francis, 445-450, 739-741 ; mod- 
ern offspring of the missions of, 752, 
753. 

Yale, Elihu, governor of Madras, 222, 
223. 

Zend-Avesta, the, 145, 146. 
Ziegenbalg,66; and Plutschan, 432, 433; 

letter of, to Cotton Mather, 451. 
Zoroaster, attachment of the Parsis to 

the religion of, 135 ; life of, 144. 



THE END. 



L'BRARY OF CONGRESS 



.0 029 897 584 1 



